US Retailers Are in Big Troubles

(4/8/2017) The brick and mortar retailers in the US are in big troubles. When the US economy remains strong, the number of retailer bankruptcy reaches post-recession (2008) high. As online retailers (or those traditional retailers with good online stores) gains more market share, traditional retailers have to figure out their survival strategies. One thing is for sure, those low-pay retail clerk, salesperson jobs will shrink!

Next industry to watch: restaurants in the US may scale back due to overexpansion

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-03/2017-retail-bankruptcies-soar-great-recession-highs (4/8/2017)

Amazon Wants to Get College Students Addicted to Prime

(10/11/2016) Some people worry about the future of US Republican party or conservative. The reason is that in the last two US Presidential elections younger voters have leaned to Democrat party. In many social issues, young generations also support a more open and liberal perspective instead of conservative. The political views, once formed, is often fixed for a long time. This year, all polls show that young voters will lean towards Democrat party again. Definitely the Republican party should worry.
       Will our purchasing behavior be cultivated like our political views?
       If so, then Amazon's pursuing young shopper should make many retailers really worry about their future. Amazon has provided college students with free limited-time Amazon Prime account for years. Now they will go further to cultivate young shoppers in their shopping habits by setting up Amazon virtual store in college campus. The really scary part is: there is no real competition in the market place. Jet.com, Newegg.com, Buy.com are, or Walmart.com are even way too smaller in terms of the services and benefits from their membership. Do you think the retailers should worry about their future?

Analyst Calls Fire At Gap Distribution Center “A Fortuitous Reduction In Inventory”

(10/06/2016) Well it is embarrassing. Gap's warehouse in NY got fire last month. Normally this type of disaster to business causes various degree of damage. But  an analyst thinks that fire will be just fine to Gap since their sales was down over the years and the fire may just slashed some unwanted inventory level. However, WSJ had a report saying that the fire will slow down the delivery of Gap's online order. In fact, the share price of Gap just jumped more than 14% today, so maybe the analyst's perspective is correct.

Amazon Prime Day is biggest day for online retailer ever

(7/13/2016) Amazon is like a crazy vacuum machine. Amazon's self-created sales holiday is now the biggest online sales event ever.  It may sucks out many people's summer purchasing budget and makes many other retailers dismal in their summer sales. Did you get sucked in?

Sam’s Club Forgot To Tell Some Employees About Their Clever Costco Promotion

(6/29/2016) If Sam's Club wants to take advantage of Costco's membership grunt, it should have done a better job called "business communication." Costco members went to Sam's Club with their Costco membership card, but they are not allowed to get in as promised, and some of them are charge with 10% non-member surcharge. Someone in Sam's Club in charge of this promotion should be blamed.

Go to 7-11 to Pick Up Shipments

(04/08/2016) Do you know now you (American citizens) can file their tax returns at 7-11? "Though the partnership with 7-Eleven might seem odd at first, for those who don’t have a bank account or credit card, this provides an option for them to pay their taxes with cash."In this aspect, finally, the US is catching up with 7-11 operations in Asia.

(11/13/2015) Now the convenient stores may provide another services to customers: picking up shipping packages. 7-11 in the US and Canada now add storage lockers for people who prefer to pick up their shipments. This logistics service provided by convenient stores might be new to American consumers, but it has been very popular in Asian contries for many years. Most people in Asia live in cities has no front yard that can 'securely' guard the shipping packages.

The following is a video (in Chinese) from a foreign backpacker explaining how he use 7-11 in Taiwan shipping stuff to another city.

This is another video (in Chinese) showing that shippers/receivers can use mobile app tracking their packages that are sent to the convenience stores.

Student Amazon Shipments Clog Dorm Mailroom?

(10/21/2015) It is a small news with a big implication: future generation's shopping habit is changing. Amazon provides free Prime membership to college students and it's working really well. Now the college dorms find it is overwhelmed by students Amazon online shipments (not just from Amazon, of course). It should be a serious warning sign for other brick-and-mortar retail stores. If Walmart, Target and BestBuy don't improve their online shopping environments and experience, they may not be relevant in the future.

Branding of Bulk Retailers

(5/16/2014) Most people probably think the difference between Costco and Sam's Club (Walmart owns it) is tiny, just a different store name. But it seems it is more than that. In the last several quarters, the performances of these two bulk retailers show they are going to different directions: Costco is doing just fine, but Sam's Club is going south. Here is a very good analysis and comparison between them.

There is no Costco in Rhode Island and I shop in Sam's Club sometimes for several years. But, based on my experience in several Sam's Club, the Sam's club management is really bad. Many of Sam's employees are most not well trained, and cannot answer some basic questions about where is the stock. I think they probably receive very little training and get paid not much better than Walmart's associates. Sam's Club definitely has serious supply issue (maybe it's related to its relationship with suppliers) since they discontinue some good brand stocks for no reasons, which made me less incentivized to shop there.

How Much Kindles Make You Buy More from Amazon

(12/17/2013) $443 per year, based on a research done by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). The headline on Time.com is misleading. The kindle users don't spend more (some maybe), but other retailers lose $443 per year to Amazon.com. That is what Mr. Bezos gets when he sell you Kindle tablets at the price of its production cost. Kindles do fulfill its mission: get Amazon Kindle users to spend more. Since Kindles suck out spendings from consumer's pockets so well, no wonder Amazon give consumers more BONUS: $57 to own a Kindle Fire FDX tablet and pay the leftover in next 90 days.

Amazon's Delivery Drone

(12/1/2013) Amazon wants to delivery its product through Drones? No kidding? Watch this 60-Minute report. Jeff Bezos has proved several times that he is right, will he be right again?

We had a discussion about Amazon's service innovations today (12/2/2013) in the MBA class. Students showed their concerns about jobs (retailers before, maybe logistics later) being eliminated from many service innovations now. The jobless issue will be a more severe problem in terms of social justice and stability. Jeff Bezos responded (in 60 Minute's interviwe)  "It's the Internet that changes these." When new technologies are available to improve and better serve the customers, are those changes also driven by consumer's demand? Do you enjoy Amazon's good service and prompt delivery? What are your comments on this employment (or unemployment) issue resulting from technology changes?

This analyst says Amazon's flying drone is just an marketing gimmick (12/3/2013) for free advertisement. How do you think?

Profit or Tradition? US Business Struggling with Thanksgiving Working Rules

(11/27/2013) Millions of US workers have their 2013 Thanksgiving ruined. From Walmart, Target, Bestbuy to PizzaHut, one after another, business decided to ruin this holiday for many. It is an arm race. You think you can gain early shopping budget from the pockets of the consumers. Well, when your competitors think as unthoughtfully as you are, your leading edge just vanishes. From the moment the business decided to open in Thanksgiving, they are in this no-winner game.

One employee at PizzaHut is fired because he refused to work in Thanksgiving. A lot of media coverage on this news one day before Thanksgiving. Although Pizza Hut headquarter distant itself from the local decision, tons of angry online users flocked onto PizzaHut's facebook page and left their disgust. I think now the managers of Pizza Hut know the feeling of Thanksgiving get ruined.

(11/28/2013) In less than 1 day, the pizza guy was hired back.

PS: Rhode Island is one of three states that ban Thanksgiving shopping.

eRetailer's Working Conditions

(11/25/2013) The low-skill low-pay working conditions at many major retailers (like Walmart) in the US have been criticized for a long time. As eRetailers get bigger and more influential (like Amazon.com) in the market, the job opportunities brought by these eRetailers are not much better. In an Amazon.com's warehouse in UK, the hidden camera revealed the stressful working conditions. The workers working there as order pickers are like machine. When they fail to pick the right order the computer 'beeps' to warn their mistakes. The researcher says "The characteristics of this type of job, the evidence shows increased risk of mental illness and physical illness." (Another article about Amazon unfairly underpaying workers for their security checking time in Germany and in the US.) The sad thing is that eRetailers have to use people to do order picking because the robot machines are not sophisticated enough. If one day the machine can replace the workers, the eRetailers will definitely 'replace' workers by new machines to 'improve the working conditions. Isn't it ironic? The low skilled workers will lose their job then.

Below is a positive report about the complexity of Amazon's distribution center.

Why Sears is Running Down

(10/22/2013) If one picture is worth a thousand words, then these pictures on Business Insider about Sears is worth of whole page of explaining why people don't shop in Sears anymore. Do you know Sears was one time the largest retailer in the US? Hard to believe, hmm? Or maybe it is "no wonder why."