It’s Not All Gloom and Doom in Retail
Really, it isn’t all gloom and doom in retail. You’ll find out when you read the may issue of MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT. Some merchants are thriving despite the U.S. economy’s crash and burn.
The issue will go online in a couple of days (as soon as I get the content ready to roll) and the print edition may already be in your mailbox. But we did run a few sneak-peaks on our site. It was stuff left behind on the cutting-room floor, but it still delivers great value and take-aways for our audience.
Here’s a piece on Movies Unlimited and Kino, a pair of DVD merchants. Neither one is Blockbuster or Hollywood Video - Movies Unlimited specializes in hard-to-find titles, and Kino specializes in classics and foreign language arts films and produces its own documentaries.
Another one we posted is Shoes for Crews. Yes, workforces are shrinking. But insurance rates are soaring. And Shoes For Crews sells slip-resistant footwear to the foodservice, hospitality, industrial, healthcare, and supermarket industries. But the QSR customer is king right now, with consumers downsizing their wallets and super sizing their meals, and evidence of staffing on the rise.
And maybe things are starting to shape up even more. Earlier this week The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index rose 12% in the month of April.
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April 30th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Focusing on a particular niche (as Movies Unlimited and Kino are doing) will lead to better results. They’re not trying to sell to everybody, just people on the edges, with particular interests. Blockbuster is struggling because they tried to cater to the masses, without specializing in anything or differentiating themselves in any way. Another reason is that they frequently had 50 copies of the latest Adam Sandler movie and very little else.