Even as it’s close to a holiday weekend, the retail business doesn’t take any time off, always up to something. Here are some of the somethings that I noticed this past week.
Jeff Bezos Wedding: When did the wedding of some executive in the retail business ever get this kind of attention? The Amazon founder and chairman pulled out all the stops in his weekend marriage in Venice, getting a lot of coverage — good and bad — in the process. And it doesn’t look like any of it bothered him. Anyone who has followed Bezos’ career since he found Amazon in 1994 knows he doesn’t seem to care what people think about him and what he does. If he did, he would have settled for starting the best online bookseller on the internet and called it a day. He’s relentless (an original name for Amazon by the way and still linked to its URL) and does what he believes his best for him and his business. You may hate him but you’ve got to acknowledge it’s a successful strategy.
Retail Lemmings: Bezos won’t tell anyone what this wedding extravaganza cost but Amazon is out there telling everyone about its latest Prime Days promotion next month. Under the theory that a four-day event is twice as good as two days, the Prime sale has been extended and one can assume next time around it will be a week. In the meantime all the retail lemmings at Walmart, Target and elsewhere are jumping on this promotional train, proving that original thinking is just a theory in retail. Can’t they come up with something new? And if you have to play this game, where is Macy’s in all of this?
Costco: The big warehouse chain is now opening its stores an hour earlier for its upper-level members, catering to its best customers and once more showing why it is so damn smart. It’s like the supermarket chain (anyone remember which one?) that while everyone else was putting in check-out lanes for ten items or less was opening one for shoppers with 25 items or more. Another example of giving your best customers preferred treatment. So many retailers — and businesses– don’t get this.
Forecasting: The suits are all over the place on consumer confidence these days, some predicting the end of days while others are saying, no, it’s going to be ok. It sure is confusing. if you want to know what’s going on with the consumer, just go to stores and watch. “You can observe a lot just by watching” is attributed to Yogi Berra and whether he said it or not (doubtful would be my guess) the thought works.
So watch out this week, stay safe…stay sane.
WarrensReport 