Retailing News Items

High end retail is in the news again, as major retailers such as Best Buy are struggling a bit.  In an article in Newsweek a few months ago some interesting information was revealed.

1.      Apple stores sales per square foot are $6,000 compared to Best Buy’s $830.  That is quite a contrast.  Apple sales per square foot are double Tiffany & Co. the next best performing store as measured by sales/sq. ft. 

2.      Showrooming,is a term for shoppers who go to stores like Best Buy to look at the real merchandise, then go on-line to complete the transaction – I would presume at the best price they could.  That is old news, what was new news to me is that 46% of people surveyed on this said they had done it. I don't think I have done that.  I have Red Laser APP on my I Phone so I can scan the bar code on any product in a store and quickly read where else it is for sale and at what prices.  The APP is not as good as I would like, since it doesn’t have a way to keep up with all the stores and their current prices, but it is a start to a new system that should worry any retailer.

3.      Customers hate standing in line for checkout at the big box stores.  So Wal-Mart is trying a radical idea.  That is to let the shoppers scan their own items as they take them off the shelf, using their smart phones.   And somehow the payment will be made quickly with that information at something replacing the conventional check out line. The first question in everyone’s mind would be “What about the rampant shoplifting?”  Wal-Mart says this system could eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in wages for checkout persons and that is expected to offset the theft.