Venerable department store icon Macy's (NYSE: M) is really at the forefront of retail strategy. I'm totally not being sarcastic either. WSJ has a piece about how Macy's is announcing the unprecedented move of tailoring items in its stores to local tastes.
Now, after Macy Inc.'s same-store sales dropped 1.3% in 2007 from the previous year, Chief Executive Officer Terry Lundgren is changing course. He is ditching the nationwide cookie-cutter approach in favor of tailoring merchandise at the world's largest department-store chain by sales to local tastes.
"What the consumer wants in the Galleria of St. Louis is different from what the consumer wants in State Street Chicago, or what the consumer wants in Portland, Oregon," Mr. Lundgren says. He now wants 15% of the merchandise in stores to reflect local preferences.
Duh.
I just hope they didn't pay McKinsey or BCG to come up with this brilliant, ground-breaing strategy. Pretty sure this item speaks for itself, demanding no further comment.
Galleria=Greatest Mall Rats Ever!
Posted by: 1-2 | April 21, 2008 at 09:39 AM
Actually it might seem rather obvious to you but buyers can't just look at market research and put in orders. They are often hired for their personal style in addition to knowledge of what their market would respond to. That would mean hiring buyers familiar with very particular geographic tastes in the middle market, which might be more trouble than its actually worth(given the lines at Macys aren't exactly avant garde).
Posted by: girl | April 21, 2008 at 11:56 AM
Thats a good point, Girl, which points out an entirely different (and rather obvious) problem altogether.
Posted by: Anal_yst | April 21, 2008 at 02:36 PM