Good retailers don't whine - discount retailers' strategies - Column

Discount Store News, Nov 21, 1994 by Don Longo

Here's some unsolicited advice for retailers that are struggling for success in the '90s.

There's no magic potion. No new merchandising strategy. No new information system. No new store design. No genius executive. No new advertising campaign. And, certainly, there's no alternative retail channel like television or computer shopping that's going to save your business.

Of course, all of these things and more are important to achieving success as a retailer--today more than ever. But no company can turn itself around by resorting to only one specific strategy.

In the past few weeks, I had the opportunity to visit with four large billion-dollar-plus discount retailers, each of which faces very different challenges.

Venture Stores executives showed me around the new, largesize 105,000-sq.-ft. store that they believe will help reestablish the chain as Chicago's dominant discounter. The St. Louisbased discounter is having a difficult year financially. Rolling out the new prototype is but one of the ways it's fighting back.

Best Products' executives gave me and DSN associate editor Teresa Andreoli tours of two remodeled showrooms in the Norfolk, Va., area. The "Diamond" stores stress self-service and position the chain more strongly as a hard lines specialty discounter of jewelry, home decor and gift items. Going through Chapter 11 forced Best to reexamine every aspect of the company, and executives had a lot to brag about.

The next day, Hills Stores welcomed Teresa and me to the eye-popping grand opening of the chain's first Richmond, Va., units--two 77,000-sq.-ft. stores. They drew hordes of shoppers, filling parking lots to capacity and creating unexpected traffic jams. Can it be only a little more than a year ago that the Canton, Mass.-based chain emerged from for Chapter 11?

A week later, Bradlees held an open house for the press at the showcase store among the six units it opened that week. Associate editor James Mammarella, Apparel Merchandising editor Jeffrey Arlen and I visited the store at Union Square in Manhattan. The six-floor unit, a former Mays department store in an unbelievably well-trafficked location, covers 147,000 sq. ft. Like other retailers, Bradlees faces multi-faceted challenges: opening profitable multi-level units in urban locations and in former warehouse club sites, searching for a chief merchandising executive, and continuing its efforts to reduce operating costs.

The recession, increased competition (just when you think there can't be any more stores, another opens) and even uncooperative weather can be enough to make a pessimist out of anyone.

But instead of whining, these retailers and a few others are taking responsibility for the future. The associates at all of these stores exhibited enthusiasm and excitement about the future. They are not looking for a secret weapon. They are concentrating on the basics of good retailing.

A retailer cannot solve all of its problems with a new prototype or a new ad campaign. It must have the courage to examine every aspect of its business. As an Andersen Consulting executive recently told me, retailers must:

* Rediscover the customer.

* Reinvent the workforce.

* Rejuvenate the store.

* And redirect all efforts toward delivering great value.