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Strategies & Market Trends : Trader J's Inner Circle -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LTK007 who wrote (45189)	7/26/2001 1:37:37 PM
From: ajtj99	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 56535

Max, when things get bad, retailers get increasingly creative to get consumers to part with their money. In our town I'm seeing more real estate signs for vacant commercial property than anytime in the past 10-years. We have a manufacturing base, so we've been in a recession since December here with lots of layoffs due to the auto, furniture, and retail industry slowdowns. Retailers that we service nationwide (hardware stores, automotive stores, homecenters, discount stores) are running very aggressive promotions. One retail chain is buying items from us for up to $0.60/ea. and selling them for a penny on coupon to get people in the door. Those items are normally sold for between $1.50 and $3.00 retail. The hope is that once inside the customer will part with more money, as they have statistics showing the money spent per store visit runs about $14.00. Another $11-Billion retail chain is cashing the refund checks for 110% of their value if converted into store gift certificates. A family's $600 becomes $660. We'll be doing that, since we shop there anyway (and they are a customer of ours too). Anyway, there is a battle for the consumer's dollars. If there are deals to be had, they are spending. If not, they're not. The successful retailer is no longer meeting the customer halfway, they are kissing their butts.