Posted on 06/26/2009 5:23:55 PM PDT by Maigret
For years, supermarkets, drugstores and discount retailers packed their shelves with an ever-expanding array of products in different brands, sizes, colors, flavors, fragrances and prices.
Now, though, they believe less is more.
Pharmacy chain Walgreen Co. is cutting the types of superglues it carries to 11 from 25. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has decided that 24 different tape measures is 20 too many. Kroger Co. has tested stripping out about 30% of its cereal varieties.
In the next year or so, these and a few of the other largest retailers are expected to slice the assortment of products in their stores by at least 15%, industry executives and analysts say.
This is a challenge for manufacturers, who have grown accustomed to churning out incremental variations on popular products to maintain shelf space and keep their brands fresh in consumers' minds. For consumers, the shift means less variety but also less trouble sorting their way through a sometimes-bewildering variety of offerings.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The old Wendy’s Soviet Fashion Show commercial comes to mind.
“Day-vear”
“Evening-vear”
“Svim-vear”
I heard that in the old Soviet Union, the only cheese available was velveeta and a cheese whiz type product. No munster, gouda, or all the other choices we take for granted.
What will the good liberal “wine and cheese” Democrats say when they can’t get some exotic cheese for their parties? These people like their choices.
I almost go crazy in any Drug Store. Ailes upon aisles of what are essentially the same product differentiated only by promotion, packaging and placement in the aisle. Mind boggling.
Again, I do support choice but, like everything, (Including financial things as we've seen) things can get to the point of negative marginal returns.
well, it is kind of stupid to cater to everybody’s whim.......for years I’ve wondered how these idiot retailers stayed in business and the answer is they weren’t.......they were overextended, thrashing about looking for the perfect formula..........
No doubt I’m in the minority.
I personally welcome this cut back in brands and style.
For the last decade no matter what food or clothing or household item or personal product I bought, within 24 months it either was pulled from the shelf or “improved” into something I no longer wanted to buy.
Same here! Just today my wife told me to get some frozen sausages. Then begins the inquisition.
What brand?
Light or greasy?
Smoked or maple cured?
Rice blend?
Precooked or need cooking/browning?
Turkey byproduct or meat types?
Screw this-We don't need them. I never get the "right" one, anyway.
If the government would get out of the way, a mom and pop store could make a living selling all the oddball brands a few people want. There is (or was) money to be made around the edges of the big box stores...it just takes creativity. Of course now that may be impossible or really hard. I saw once a person who had a whole store of nothing but boutique brand soft drinks.
What Wal-mart won’t carry for volume, there may be enough people who like it to make some money off of it.
Is this why it will be so easy to get people on board with this agenda? Wow.
How long before we stand in line for necessities?
Quite a bit of this actually comes from Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart dictates that suppliers cut their prices by around 3% per year. They make exceptions if the product was redesigned. This policy has two effects. The first was it caused a lot of outsourcing to China in order to cut costs. The second is it causes a perpetual redesign of products in order for suppliers to claim that they are new. So we get to count how many different ways companies can make a razor and claim its the next big thing.
The real problem is retailers entering into exclusive deals with suppliers. So, you might have 15 different varieties of a product, but they’re all the same brand.
I prefer to shop at stores where there is real variety.
Went to buy deoderant at WalMart this PM. There were about 4 or 5 choices WITHIN the brand I use. Except the one I’ve always used. Had to settle for something ‘new and different’. I hope it isn’t.
Then there were about a hundred other brand choices.
Still, it’d better than too few choices.
Lainey,
The issue is “choice” of a different kind.
I want easy access to stores where I can buy products I’ve used for years or decades, products that deliver the same value, quality, and satisfaction year after year.
The problem is that the “choice” you want has utterly destroyed the “choice” I want.
I wouldn't matter. America has a 50 foot gash in her hull. Cap and Trade is just another burst pipe below the water line.
Yah. Guess I better stock up on Vernor’s before it retreats to the Midwest.
BINGO~ You ‘got’ it!
Really people, we’re talking about LOTS of things being either not available at all or taxed out of existence. It isn’t about having FEWER choices it is about having ANY!!!
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