Stores Close
150,000 closed stores in 2008. Projections are for MORE closed stores in 2009.
For those who are struggling to survive MVI reported some of the prevailing philosphies that are being carried out at retail today. Those include:
- Building/preserving cash profit is certainly more important than customer revenue maximization.
- Avoid building assets rather than make assets more productive.
- Fear inventory.
I am sure that these strategies will help IF all of the competitors follow suit. However, the store/chain that chooses instead to take Paco UnderHill’s advice and “never leave a dollar of earned demand on the table” would have a significantly different strategy that might offer the consumer a real difference, that should lead to more sales, more loyalty and loyalty for the right reasons.