Posted on 03/05/2005 6:08:51 PM PST by CHARLITE
The bottom line is, there will be less choice for the consumer with the same merchandise being offered at all stores. It's the MacDonaldization of retailing. Where consistency trumps quality and selection, and low prices trumps service and a knowledgeable staff. There will be less variety in clothing since there will be fewer buyers making the choices.
As a kid, I can recall when going downtown to shop used to be a special outing, almost an entertainment event. People actually used to get all dressed up to go "to the stores," believe it or not. Well-dressed ladies would lunch in the Bullocks Wilshire "tea room" watching models showing the latest fashions. Mothers brought their daughters and everyone looked beautiful — dressed in their finest outfits.
Department stores had individual personalities. If you think of the stores in terms of classic actresses it will help demonstrate what I mean. The Broadway and the May Co. were June Allyson and Debbie Reynolds — the clean, neat, girls next door. Bullocks was Bette Davis, simple yet stylish. Robinsons was Grace Kelly, classy and understated. Bullocks Wilshire was Myrna Loy, elegant and expensive; and I. Magnin was Ethel Barrymore, the granddame.
You had a choice and, to paraphrase Martha Stewart, choice is a good thing. Today the choice is which store has the lowest price on jeans.
It's impossible to apply the classic actress yardstick to today's mega-mart stores, but if we use television personalities we might have something like the following: Nordstrom is Oprah Winfrey, Bloomingdales is Kelly Ripa, Wal-Mart is Roseanne Barr, K-Mart is Roseanne Barr, Sears is Roseanne Barr, Macys is Roseanne Barr, Target is Roseanne Barr, Mervyns is Roseanne Barr, and Marshall's is Roseanne Barr
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Service as gone with the old department stores. My first job in retail was at JL Hudson's{similar to Macy's} in Detroit. The sales ladies kept little books of customers, their sizes, special dates, etc. They would call a customer and let them know something had come in. Now you have to walk around looking for a place to check out.
....Oh my, was I embarrassed, it was filled of people, and they couldn't get out fast enough.
My family jokes that every store I worked in is closed. Sort of sad, but not entirely true. At least they still have the Thanksgiving day parade.
If you can't find something, or need help in the curtain, lingerie or linens departments in Penney's or Sears, for instance, forget about it. I just walk out now. They need me more than I need them.
I find I'm ordering more and more through specialty catalogues and on the net.
The stores just don't get it anymore.....service to the customer is paramount. They're cutting corners in all the wrong places. I wonder why that's so hard to understand.
Today you can shoot a grapeshot cannon througn a department store floor and never hit a clerk.
Leni
Mom and little me would ride the El from the suburbs to the Windy City during the Christmas holidays. We'd gawk at the world-famous Field's window displays, each window artistically and luxuriously designed with animated holiday scenes......like winter wonderlands. I was so thrilled.
Then we'd have lunch in Field's tea room where most of the lady diners indeed wore hats. I always ordered the equally-famous Field's Salad which was essentially today's Chef's Salad, but with their own special dressing. The rolls, desserts and everything else was so delicious.....but of course, everything tasted better when you were a kid.
Even Milk Duds.
Leni
You'll get much better service in the smaller specialty stores. Most of the stores from Lerners to The Gap to jewelers train their employees in customer service. As a manager we kept updating our customer lists and training in courtesy and suggestive sales were mandatory. The large jewelry chains for example, train their employees to greet every customer and to send thank yous.
Sadly, I'm pretty sure Dillard's is owned by either Federated or May Company -- I cna't remember which, but I'm 90% certain it will be included in this merger.
Sadly, I'm pretty sure Dillard's is owned by either Federated or May Company -- I can't remember which, but I'm 90% certain it will be included in this merger.
Nope, I take it back. Dillard's is still independent. I looked it up. Sorry.
I'm sure you, like me, have noticed that there are no restaurants left except McDonalds and its imitators. LOL
I wonder if liberals like this idea..........or not?! Aren't they all for "diversity." wherever it can be IMPOSED?.......or is that only on college campuses? Seems they want total conformity. "One size retailer fits all!" . . . . or am I missing something about their "progressive view and plans" for America?
Lots of conformity and uniformity, wasn't there, in Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Saddam's Iraq......still in N. Korea. It's called toeing the party line. Isn't that what libs want? Their way or the highway?
How can they demand diversity and uniformity at the same time?
Re: retail monopolies: Are we getting to the monopoly stage? If so, then of course choices are going to decrease as the billion $$$ retail gorillas take over the market.
Remember in the USSR, there was only "GUM" Dept. store? It was state-run. In the clothing line, the public had a choice of different shades of gray.
If Hillary becomes president, maybe she will impose uniformity of pants suits for women.........all in gray, so that her pink, yellow and turquoise blue pants suits will be "just so speh-shull !!"
I had to laugh, I went by the local Crap*Mart last week and about 7 employees in their blue uniform's with all the buttons and pins were standing at a bus stop. If they had decent paying job's, they may actually be able to own a car
The Marshall Field in Chicago is still a great place to spend the day. I make a point of having brunch with my wife in the Walnut Room when we go to Chicago on business. You know it's a good place when you ask if they have Veuve Cliquot and the waitress answers "Of course!"
My wife and I take our mothers to the Zodiac Room at Neiman's on Mothers' Day. That little demitasse of chicken broth and opovers with strawberry butter...
I shop there because they sell ammo. Try to find that at Target or Kmart. Or Macy's ;-)
Our KMart sells ammo.
Really? I don't think the one near me does. What kind of guns do they sell?
Wish I could tell you but I don't know. I just never paid much attention. But my brother buys his shot gun shells there. They had to withdraw their handgun ammo though. Thanks to our good buddy Michael Moore and his fake documentary "Bowling For Columbine." There was some kind of protest and KMart caved in. Oh, our store is a BigK. Don't know if that makes a difference.
Oh, that's right. They do sell shotgun shells. I had poked around in there for handgun ammo once upon a time but didn't see any.
It wasn't that long ago that Federated was in the tank. It looks as though things have brightened for that company.
Your hatred of WalMart borders on elitism. The wages at WalMart are pretty good (why unions have not taken hold) and they employ large numbers in small communities (a good thing with the transition away from manufacturing)
And don't spout the liberal mantra of "If there were not WalMart, we would still have manufacturing" because making 'things' in the US has been on the decline for for many, many years and has little to do with WalMart and more to do with wages and skills of workers.
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