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Jeff Green Partners

A LEADER IN RETAIL REAL ESTATE FEASIBILITY

jgreen@jeffgreenpartners.com

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Walmart

Retailers practice to make Black Friday smooth

Lauren Abdell-Razzaq / The Detroit News – The moment the doors opened, they stormed the Best Buy store in true Black Friday fashion, brandishing ads and calling out for an assortment of electronics with varying degrees of knowledge about the products.

“Where is the new Samsung iPad?” a confused customer asked.

“Do you have that TV I saw advertised?” said another.

“I’m a little kid who’s lost his parents,” said a third.

Of course the real thing won’t happen until Thursday and Friday. But when the employees at the Utica store opened their doors Sunday, they were faced down by a massive line of eager “shoppers” whipped into a frenzy by holiday deals. In reality, the employees of this store — along with the “Blue Shirts” at every Best Buy store across the nation — were role-playing in an elaborate practice run designed to prevent problems when the real Thanksgiving and Black Friday customers appear.

Fall-ing into the Holidays

Observant shoppers will have noticed something ominous in recent weeks: the arrival of fall and winter products and holiday marketing/promotions in many stores. As unbelievable as it might seem, considering the fact that much of the country is still experiencing 90-degree heat and a glance at the calendar shows that it is barely September as I write this edition of Retail Rap, the holiday hullabaloo is already underway. The Halloween décor you saw showing up in August in Walmart is not a figment of your imagination, and the cinnamon pinecones you smell in the bins outside the grocery store are really there.

My own personal take on the timing issue is that the holiday season phenomenon has been pushed about as far as it can reasonably go. When we go to the store and see all these signals that fall is here, even though both the weather and the calendar might say otherwise, there’s a kind of seasonal dissonance that sets in. Because who wants winter to come that quickly? How many shoppers are really ready to think about this stuff, much less actually start buying it? Ultimately, I’m not sure if this is helping to move more merchandise.

Let’s discuss the issues that the growing trend of pushing the holiday shopping “season” up earlier may cause for brick-and-mortar retailers in this edition of Retail Rap.

Shoppers hit stores on first day of tax-free weekend

Gary Dinges / Austin American Statesman – Aug. 08–Bargain hunters of all ages swarmed Central Texas stores Friday, the first day of the state’s tax-free weekend.

Through Sunday, retailers aren’t charging state and local sales taxes on most clothing and school supplies priced less than $100. In most cities, including Austin, that means shoppers will save 8.25 cents for each dollar they spend.

Over the course of the three-day weekend, the state comptroller’s office estimates Texans will save $82.7 million.

Dollar store merger means more competition

Hadley Malcolm / USA Today – Competition among discount stores is about to ramp up with Dollar Tree’s acquisition, and revitalization, of Family Dollar’s more than 8,200 stores, analysts and industry experts say.

Family Dollar, which was founded in 1959 by CEO Howard Levine’s father Leon, has been suffering from a lack of direction and tired stores that haven’t changed in years, they say. It’s also wavered from the enticing price point its moniker alludes to. And an expansion plan was bagged earlier this year when the company said in April that it would actually close 370 stores and said foot traffic was declining.

Cornering the Market

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Walmart is thinking small in a big way. The brand recently announced that they intend to open 100 Neighborhood Market stores in 2013, with plans to open 500 by 2016. It’s clear that Walmart is embracing the “right-sizing” model that so many retailers are moving toward recently, but I also think this is a strategic […]