Article by Ron Pawlowski
An article in The Toronto Star dated March 6th indicated thatthe love affair with the Big Box store is over. These retailingbehemoths sprouted up in the mid eighties as baby boomer incomespeaked. Runaway consumerism largely fueled by housingimprovements and lifestyle choices made big box stores the ultimate model on the retail landscape.Today, the big box concept has reached a saturation point with manyof these retailers downsizing or substantially slowing down plans toexpand.While baby boomers pare down their spending and requirements,younger shoppers in our new economy have less disposable income than their predecessors. Spending is far more selective and modest,with a strong undercurrent of practicality. The new consumer doesn’t want to spend 35 minutes or morewandering a hundred thousand square feet of aisles looking atitems they largely don’t want or need. They are coming in with adistinct mission and they want to get in and out in a shortertimeframe.The smaller retailer is able to offer a more intimate and effectiveshopping experience with a relationship far closer to the customerthat the Big Box retailer.Indeed, the smaller retailer is more conducive to the needs of thenew consumer. Their simpler and more straight forward presentationcan effectively meet the consumer’s more modest requirements ina more focused manner. The smaller retailer can also fine tune theirmerchandise mix by connecting with the consumer and make changesquicker than the big box retailer who is bogged down in structure andbureaucracy.Curiously, as I have mentioned before, Wal Mart is doing well in theNew Economy. Wal Mart is still fuelled buy the high consumer needsof the established family and for now has a specific following.Yet the majority of big box retailers have fallen from grace with our new practical, conservative and calculating consumer.Smaller retailers can be closer, better and faster when they use theirsize to their advantage. Through all of this, price driven consumers are putting more emphasis back on service as opposed to selection. This puts the smaller retailer at a new advantage over the selectiondriven big box retailer!
Take Action Today:1) Review this new trend with your sales associates. Small is “in”, bigbox is saturated and “out” with the new consumer mentality.2) New consumers focus more on service and will now forfeitselection for price and value. Refocus your sales team on optimalservice and great value. Deep wide selection no longer dazzles thenew consumer. 3) Train sales staff to keep close to the customer. Ask about their needsoften and take action if a sale is lost when a customer fails to find what she is looking for in your store.4) Take advantage of your smaller size by fine tuning your productarray. You can do it often, and react faster than big box retailers.
retail, retailer, leadership, operations, big, box, merchandise, service, selection, sales, employees
About the Author
Ron Pawlowski is a ManagingPartner at The Retail Institute.He has 30 years of experience in the Retail Industry, a Bachelor’s Degree in Science as well as an MBA.The Retail Institute is dedicated to the support of the small to medium retailer through timely informative articles as well as affordable retail seminars, manuals and systems.http://www.retailinstitute.ca
