Doug Stephens

Target and Wal-Mart Give Individual Attention to Customers

August 31, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Target and Wal-Mart Stores may be the biggest mass merchandisers in the country, but both believe business results can be improved by tailoring what they do to individual shoppers. Do you think Target and Wal-Mart are capable of achieving a "neighborhood store" feel?      [more...]

We may disagree on the extent to which Wal-Mart has or has not been effective in localizing its assortments but it seems to me that there are a couple of points that are difficult to dispute.

1. The Wal-Mart model thrives on scale. The more narrow and deep the assortment...the better. That's just the way it works.
2. America is rapidly becoming 3 countries under one roof. The 2010 census will show that growth is largely concentrated in three regions (the North East, the West and the South).
3. Within these regions, there are no longer large, homogeneous consumer segments for which demand and preferences can be easily predicted as was the case with the Baby Boomer generation. Family composition and lifestyle is shifting dramatically and ethnic markets are growing in influence.

Add to all this with a hyper-connected consumer who knows "what's new" before Wal-Mart does and it necessitates an entirely new degree of nimbleness. One that flies in the face of the model that got Wal-Mart to where they are today.