Related Articles

• They're in Your Stores, Too

  

  "Sausage stations, 'beer dens' cater to growing ranks of men in grocery store aisles," according to a July 10 article in the Wall Street Journal*. 
  
  Much like car dealerships and consumer electronics stores who "discovered" female shoppers some years ago, the efforts of these grocery chains to cater to male shoppers are lauded with much the same breathlessness. Nonetheless, it is not to be dismissed.
  
  Some grocery chains report that the share of male shoppers has risen from 30% to 40%.  "The dad has been the most overlooked population in grocery-store marketing and brand communication. By ignoring half the population, stores are leaving money on the table."
  

• Repping Your Customers?

  

  REI, the $2.62 billion outdoor equipment retailer with over 150 stores, has announced rigorous new standards...for their suppliers!

  Those suppliers who can't or won't meet REI's standards? Their products will not even be considered for REI's store shelves, even if that will affect sales.
  REI's stated standards are an effort to "match its environmental impact to the values espoused by many of its customers." 
  
  Or, in other words, REI has chosen to be an agent for the customer, rather than appear as an agent for the suppliers.
  
  REI's chief executive Jerry Stritzke calls the standards "maybe one of the most transformative things" the 80-year-old co-op has done. "At some point you get to a tipping point where it's expected by consumers," he added.

• How's Your "Wow!" Effect?

  

  "No business has ever failed with happy customers."
  ---Warren Buffett, CEO, Berkshire-Hathaway

  Buffett's logic is very straightforward: people like to indulge themselves.
  
  For some observers, this helps to explain Buffett's investments in "junk food" – from Coke, to See's Candy, Dairy Queen, etc. 
  
  "The CEO of Berkshire-Hathaway invests in bad food and his diet reflects it: he drinks Coke at breakfast and ice cream is an occasional accompaniment," writes Kyle Stock of Bloomberg News.
  
  "When asked about his diet, Buffett has said he aims to eat like a 6-year-old because that's the age at which mortality is least likely."

• Retailers: Unleash your imagination!

  

  As we often discuss, retailing is a very dynamic industry, constantly changing and evolving. To be successful, retailers must pass frequent flexibility tests. So we paid particular attention to this recent headline in the New York Times*: "The freshest ideas are in small grocery stores." 

• Look who prefers shopping in stores

  

  You’ve heard about the robust sales numbers on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, right? Now ICSC – the International Council of Shopping Centers – has sponsored a research survey about Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday to delve into them a bit more.

  And what they found sure surprised us. 
  
  For example, who were the biggest fans of physical retail and shopping centers?
  
  Millennials. 
  
  Yep, those "digital natives", folks ages 18 – 36 chose to make their purchases from physical retailers (or through websites operated by physical retailers) rather than shopping pure online retailers such as Amazon.

• Want to grow your profits?

  

  Of course you do! Doesn't everybody?

  But as pressures grow to raise wages, increase benefits, renew leases, improve technology, and oh yes, pay taxes, many businesses find their profits diminishing.

  But retailers have a special advantage. An often under-utilized  pocket of profit growth potential. 
  
  Yes, we're talking about your inventory! 

  For each $100 of inventory @cost, as it sells, its markup (margin dollars) helps cover expenses and adds to profit.

  Even a modest increase in inventory turnover rates per year can yield a dramatic increase in margin dollars and net profits. (For the formula for turnover and more perspective, see the Retail Benchmarks section at The ROI.)

  Take a look at this chart.