Word: stores
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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That's the future. For now, getting shoppers to change their habits is difficult. In a store in Secaucus, N.J., 470 miles (750 km) east of Elyria, CEO Scott is looking sternly at a serving platter priced at $24.99 as if it didn't get the memo. Around the pricey platter, lower-cost merchandise has sold briskly, and Scott is seeing evidence that Wal-Mart's attempt to move up the fashion/design/price ladder still has a way to go. It's not clear whether shoppers simply won't buy higher-priced stuff at Wal-Mart or, as happened in apparel...
...would fling regional bosses to the far parts of the empire. They would return Friday and report Saturday morning at the big weekly meeting that has been held since Mr. Sam was in charge. Numbers would be counted; plans would be made; orders would be cut. In the field, store managers wouldn't change their socks unless the home office gave the go-ahead...
This kind of central command and control, long out of favor in corporate America (not to mention the People's Republic of China), is now being de-emphasized. Castro-Wright, 52, is pushing executives out to where the stores are and bringing in local hires. The company has created five U.S. regions and staffed them as if they were independent $8 billion-to-$12 billion retailers. The Southeast regional headquarters is in Atlanta; the Midwest is run out of Chicago. Both regions are headed by locals, which will give the company more political clout in the sometimes contentious battles...
...Mart wants to tailor about 10% of each store's merchandise to the neighborhood--a long-unrealized goal. Given the company's appetite for goods, its buyers' primary focuses have been price and logistics: How do you get millions of 20-lb. (8 kg) bags of dog food delivered to 3,500 stores efficiently? They're good at that. They're not so good at figuring out what to do when shoppers in Dallas don't buy the giant bags of dog food that they've become so expert at supplying. What if doggie apparel is just as sellable...
...strategy tries to make that connection--editing for the area, offering a point of distinction. "It's going to tell the customer that we understand what they need," says Castro-Wright. "We not only understand what you need, we respect your point of view. We want to be your store of choice because we understand you better than anyone else in the marketplace...