Random Articles

• Small Gaps Between Us Notice all the stores Dave mentions are related: Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy are all Gap Inc. brands. Eight years ago when Apple didn’t have any retail stores, Millard Drexler, then CEO of Gap Inc, joined the Apple Board of Directors. Personally, I can count on one hand the number of items I’ve ever purchased from Gap
• Hollywood Video in the Local Supermarket  Ran up to the local Cub Foods for a last minute dinner item this evening and snapped the above photo of the new Hollywood Video Express Kiosk over in a part of the store I never go to (Sturgeon’s Revelation frequently comes to mind while I’m grocery shopping). I found two things interesting about this moment.
• Best Buy Focuses on Personas Best Buy has taken the first step in their persona-centric model. According to the Wall Stree Journal’s Analyzing Customers, Best Buy Decides Not All Are Welcome, the sales associates have received training to briefly interview customers to determine if they are a Barry, Jill, or Ray Buzz. In an effort to keep their store relevant in
• Customer in Training While a number of supermarkets and discount stores offer “customer-in-training” shopping cart as their primary method of keeping children occupied while their parents shop, Wegmans - a Woodbridge, N.J. supermarket chain - goes one step further offering W Kids Childcare centers . The videos, toys, and playground equipment found at these centers is part of a
• You Expect What You Pay For Recently - a collegue recounted his experience selling a fully-capable product with a price less than half its competitors. “After the presentation, the customer turned to the sales representative and asked, ‘What’s wrong with it?’” This, more than 78 years after J. Walter Thompson’s research for Pond’s Cold Cream proved that price and quality are directly correlated