Burt Flickinger
Burt Flickinger
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Retail planning has a very long lead time and it's tightly controlled,
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For busy parents who stock up on baby food and other items, if they can't easily find it in Wal-Mart, they don't have time to go back. They'll just go to the competition. It's critical for Wal-Mart stores to be fully stocked and have experienced staff on weekends.
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For the first time in nearly five years, there is a real softness in the upper-tier department store sector.
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Retailers are really getting squeezed especially in the largest retail sector, which is the supermarket sector. In the discount sector, Sears and Kmart would be at significant risk.
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It is critical for Wal-Mart to start doing a billion dollars a day in sales starting on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, which is the big 30-day push for Christmas and year-end sales.
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Most retailers made major mistakes of putting their distribution centers at greater distances from each other when energy prices came down and stayed stable in the 80s and 90s . Retailers are long-hauling freight anywhere from 300 to 700 miles. With 50 cents a mile for a 20-ton diesel freight truck, it adds up.
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Starting with the recession in the mid-70's, the worse the economy got the better Wal-Mart sales would be. Now, like everybody else, Wal-Mart is using every excuse in the book to disguise company-specific problems.
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When it comes to their eating habits, consumers will continue to choose the proverbial sin over salvation -- or fat and sugar -- over the lack of it.
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No matter what the stores do, they still seem to not be able to stimulate spending.
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The biggest implication of Wal-Mart bringing payment processing in-house is the potential for it to save an unprecedented amount of money in yearly fees.
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Consumers increasingly have a conscience and are increasingly shifting to competitors.
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Consumers are wearing this year what they wore last year. We're already seeing a slowdown in apparel and accessories and that's a pretty bad barometer going into the winter season.
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Between warehousing, utilities and transportation costs, retailers have been paying unprecedented premiums for their supply chain. Therefore shoppers will be seeing substantially higher prices by year's end.
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Americans are work-stressed, time-stressed, and they're eating out more. Sugar and fat is tasty and it gives immediate gratification.