an interesting article about retailers tactics in hard times...

This should be of interest to all MS'ers, IMHO, as it gives us an idea of where the clients are heading and insight into what, if anything, might be ahead for us. Of note is the emphasis on customer service! :-)

[www.nytimes.com]

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2009 09:39AM by dee shops.

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Interesting read. Thanks dee...

Shopping Bama and parts of Georgia.
I'm still learning 24/7.

Perhaps. Unfortunately they are likely to be much to late to the party. Macy's took over a vibrant Florida chain that had Florida colors, styles, fabric weight and sizes. They brought in the somber 'sophisticated' colors of colder climes and showed our normal colors and fabric weights only in 'resort wear' at out-of-line prices. I loved Macy's when I lived in the North because they had what I wanted/needed, I long ago gave up on them here. I went into Saks when they opened and their largest shoe was a 9--I need an 11 or 12. Their largest woman's size would fit less than half the women in my market (including me). I walked out never to return. My customer perceptions have been set on both stores and although Macy's advertises heavily--especially their sales--in my market, their models and colors still look straight out of New Jersey. There is nothing in their ads or self-representation that 'speaks to' Florida.

I saw that article today, too, and was going to post it. I agree that it could mean more business for MS'ers if they truly mean that they are going to focus on customer services. As a consumer, however, I don't like that there may be fewer choices in a store and less quantity. That could mean more running around trying to find the right item. It may also mean that people will do even more online shopping than we already do - to the demise of the brick and mortar store.

Here reduced quantities of merchandise has been a fact of life since last fall. As I visited Target and similar places during the holiday shopping season I was stunned that top shelves had no more than a single facing of merchandise and usually a single depth. Often the lowest shelf was similarly single face/single depth if not altogether empty. Other shelves were likely to be single face rather than stacked with often a 2 finger space or larger spacing between rows of items. Clothing stores with habitually overstuffed racks often had a 2-3 finger width space between hangers and there were fewer racks leaving the space more conducive to browsing. Since it never struck me as productive to have 47 identical blouses in the same size on the rack, I find no more than 3-4 identical blouses per size is appealing, especially if you restock the racks.

Great article, thanks!

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an interesting article about retailers tactics in hard times...

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