The Power of Retail

The remaining few items left to be bought for our home, include a console table, a bookshelf and a couple of other items for the pantry area. When it comes to furniture stores, one has to be quite specific about what one likes, as there is just so much choice these days that it is easy to be confused and end up selecting something that will not match the decor or the scale of the room. I try to make detailed lists of the space and my options before I visit a store, just to avoid being talked into buying something by a salesperson. Stores such as Boyles, are known for their salesmanship, so one need not worry about something like that there, but it makes sense to at least have detailed sizes of spaces that you need to fill.

Just back from a shopping trip to Ikea. Luckily, there was nothing major to be bought this time, just wanted to walk through, take a look around and pick up something small and handy for the house, so I didn’t have to comeback empty handed! As usual Ikea didn’t dissapoint and there were lots of fun things to buy in the kitchen section as well as the plants area. If there is one store who knows how to pull in people, its Ikea. The marketers and merchandisers of Ikea have done a superb job at creating a brand that is memorable, attainable and friendly, so the store is able to reach out to a very wide range of consumers. Most stores have a hard time doing this and end up alienating sections of consumers who they are not directly targeting, but not this Swedish giant of retail. Ikea has perfected the model of grabbing consumers attention and converting them into lifelong fans.

When it comes to innovations, the retail industry is full of them and it is really very interesting to see all the different ways one can buy things, whether at retail, wholesale or direct from a manufacturer. Using the third option, is directbuy where you can buy home decor items directly from manufacturers and save something like 43%, which is what the markup is in the home furnishings business. At DirectBuy, consumers can become members and have access to special deals where they will save money that usually goes into the middleman’s hands. There are lots of other advantages of becoming a member and buying items at DirectBuy as well, read up about them at their site.

The concept of affordable luxury is not such a winning formula in the US anymore. Consumers who once spent $300 on saucepans or $200 on jeans have now stopped buying such things at these prices, which is leading to the collapse of the economy built around the concept of aspiration. Affordable luxury stores such as Tiffany & Company, Coach, Nordstrom are feeling the pinch already and are seeing slower sales, and falling stock prices.

The phenomenon earned many nicknames — mass affluence, new luxury, masstige — and was best summarized by the retail experts Michael J. Silverstein and Neil Fiske in their 2003 book, “Trading Up: The New American Luxury.”

They posited that Americans with household incomes of $50,000 and above tend to “trade up” to high-end products in categories like kitchen appliances or bedding that are emotionally important to them, while perhaps pinching pennies elsewhere to compensate.

Dozens of chains rode this masstige wave, and earned billions in the process. Coach persuaded women to buy $400 handbags when a $60 version from Macy’s could have sufficed. Williams-Sonoma trained shoppers to covet a $35 stainless-steel hand-crank can opener, even though Wal-Mart sells a high-quality electric model for less than half the price. And 7 for All Mankind convinced people that they wanted a $200 pair of jeans made from the same material in a $30 pair of Wranglers.

As we get settled in our new home, we’ve been thinking of investing in an entirely new system for our computer. The ways of connecting earlier used to be quite basic, but as we progress in Internet connectivity, the way we work has also changed. Using something like the Cat6 would probably be a good option to streamline things and to make the system more efficient. The way that technology is progressing, it can be hard to keep up with things but one has to be able to attune them to one’s requirements. Since I work from home, I need to have a system that is flexible and use friendly and one that does not need much maintainance or upkeep.

After foreign shoppers it is the turn of foreign retailers who are rushing to New York City to take advantage of the weakened dollar. The dull Christmas season didn’t see many shoppers but foreign shoppers, especially Europeans have been coming to the US, specifically for shopping, which did give a much needed boost to retailers in the US. The trend has become so popular that some designers have raised the price of products in the US and are also limited the number of items they can purchase to try to control consumers buying products in bulk only to sell them or return them in Europe for higher prices. Foreign retailers are finding it quite lucrative to open stores in NYC in places such as the meatpacking district and SoHo, which are traditionally not visited by domestic tourists, who prefer to go to Times Square and so on. Real estate prices are lower in these neighborhoods and locals are more open to creative arts and new ventures, which is able to give new store owners a slight boost in marketing.

I’ve been considering getting a new computer lately. I use a laptop and I’ve had my current one for just over two years now and it’s been a really great laptop to have. What I’m now considering is getting a barebones computer that I can use for things other than work, which I would want to continue to do on this laptop, since it is great to travel with. We already have two laptops between the two of us, so if we get another computer, the first question is where would it go? Once that is sorted out, I’m sure there will be a lot of uses to an extra computer in the house. So, now what I need to do is to do some research and find something that will suit our requirements.

With the constant rise in property prices, retailers are betting on taller stores in the future. Companies like Barnes & Noble, Kohl’s, REI, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Chick-fil-A, and Harris Teeter are working on two-story projects. While department stores have been on several levels for many years, these chains have traditionally kept to one level. According to Emmet Curl, the revenue director for Wake County, value of real estate in the area rose by 43% in the past eight years. In cities like Atlanta, the residential areas have become so crowded that there is no space left for grocery stores. Home Depot has already forayed into this territory and opened multilevel stores in Chicago, Vancouver and Manhattan. Other Big Box retailers such as Costco and Target are also working on developing such stores. The biggest discounter of all, Wal-mart has also opened several multi level stores and is working to open more as well.

Since I’ve been on a roll writing about travel to far off places, especially driving trips, I thought I would add that for most car enthusiasts having car spoilers is something that they get as soon as they get a new car. There is more to car spoilers than just looks though, as they do make a difference in the driving and handling of a vehicle, especially if one is driving long distances. I was not aware of the differences between the various types of car spoilers until very recently, and when I did, I realized that it has a lot of depth and detailing to it, besides just looking good. While the visual factor is very important, there is a lot more to car spoilers than just that.