Ok now you got one for the record. You guys has woolworths???? in the USA.
Thats my favorite store back in South Africa and its still going. Just not sure we talking the same Woolworths. Ours was more like a version of the UK store Marks and Spencer.
Top quality items at very good prices.
Can you believe my Mil is visiting and the one thing i have her bring with anytime she or any other family member visit is to purchase Woolworth underpants (boxers to you guys) for me.
Yup best present there is. Here you go.
http://www.woolworths.co.za/store/b...Id=cat90270&q_docSort=&addFacet=9004:cat90270
This is the
Marks and Spencer i was refering to
Here is the
UK version of Woolworths definitely not the same store
Carol as to the store benefiting in the circumstances you mention i think there is payback even in the franchise situation you mention.
Consider this. The person buying online and picking up at the store did so for a reason. The corporation actually saved the store in this situation. Why? Well the person has remained loyal to the store and has actually traveled to the store to pick up the goods.
Now the store owner has the chance to develop a relationship. Find out where he/she is going wrong and did not fulfill the needs of this particular consumer. Offer to cater to them in the future and thank them for the opportunity to meet them and their loyalty to the brand while undertaking to remedy the situation in future needs.
Its to me all about recognising that having a store dont make you entitiled to my buck or a profit just cause it exists.
Bill Satko has this bang on. So does Allen in my view. Stores need to earn their customer support and keep up with expectations and the times. Interest rates are way down low so there is no excuse for not having inventory. Retail cannot sell if they dont have inventory just talk to retail buyers who many times are given quotas to purchase product to ensure the store is stocked.
Local stores need to get their inventory on the internet. They need to answer their phones and deal with the customer not just hang up or have automated systems. They need to be prepared to go the extra mile not just sell the common comodity inventory.
Had Brent found bearings do you think he would have concerned himself with whether or not they were 50cents more than online?
This is what happens when people take buzzwords out of other industries and begin to apply them across the board. Inventory turn and just in time etc do not neccessary belong in local small business. Sure at Home Depot its a different equation and different scale. But as Don points out one pipe???? how low can you go in inventory before you call it zero stock on hand.
You cannot sell what you dont have. And if i am at home and can see what a store thousands of miles away from me has ready to ship next day and you around the corner cannot show me that you have it within a 10 minute drive well you dont deserve to be around.
Money in retail is made on $/Sqrft basis so no inventory no pay the costs.
Employees well i think Frank is dead on they gain by having a job and the sooner they become part of the equation of satisfying the customer the sooner they keep their job.
see a future where there aint no jobs not as we know them now. More a case of life like it is lived in the Maritimes or up in the Northwest on a fishing boat. One person will have the capital to afford the boat the rest will be crew. If crew want to have all the entitlements and not catch lobster/crab when its bad weather then crew will starve as will boat owner. Boat owner will not put up with crew like this for long so new crew will be recruited.
Simple word will be collaboration. We fish together and you share in the catch proportionate to your efforts you put in. No titles and pay scales or positions etc. Just get the job done and pay for part of the costs to get it done. So all need to look after the ship not just the captain. All need to focus on waste not just the captain. Captain also needs to look after the crew or there is no crew left and no one will want to crew for the captain.
This aint no pipe dream. Take a look at what is happening in supposedly communist China where they are battling to get workers to work in certain plants right now at certain wages. Product coming out of China is going up in some cases by as much as 30%. Some of this is as a result of the crew not being able to feed themselves with the food inflation that exists there.
It will all normalise at some point in time but the net is everyone has to become part of the same solution.
Thats my 5 cents