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nepetaMisekiryoiki posted:Reminds of the New Coke debacle! New Coke wasn't a total loss. They never actually went back to the previous formula, after all
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Feb 7, 2019 23:12
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Lambert posted:New Coke wasn't a total loss. They never actually went back to the previous formula, after all I've never been one for conspiracy theories, such as it is in this case, but that one I can buy. QuarkJets posted:the average person [is] getting a bit poorer each year, as the cost of living continues rising but inflation-adjusted wages stay the same Invalid Validation posted:And since wages have stagnated for decades everyone is poor as poo poo and won’t buy full priced even if the price is what it would be during a sale cause we’re all fuckin poor and need deals to survive. This can not possibly be overstated.
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Feb 8, 2019 00:37
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Yesterday’s news should put to rest the idea that Sears creditors (which include Bill Gates and several large banks) are helplessly obligated to put up with Lampert to the bitter end. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/02/06/business/eddie-lampert-sears-ceo/index.html quote:Those lenders [for Lampert’s bid] have a provision in their loans that says if someone from ESL is named CEO, they can require the appointment of a chief restructuring officer who would oversee the company's operations, it was revealed during a bankruptcy court hearing Wednesday. A chief restructuring officer typically has broad powers over a company's finances and operations and limits the freedom of the CEO to act. In other words Lampert may have convinced them that Sears has more than its fire-sale value, but he didn’t convince them that he or his fund cronies can realize it.
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Feb 8, 2019 00:58
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nepetaMisekiryoiki posted:It seems the people who act like customers are bad for wanting discounts are grossly mistaken. Did not this store advertise itself as the place with all the special complicated sales for many decades? Even if the prices were truly less after the change, it's no surprise that destroying your main identifier is bad for the brand. It seems that only this sale gimmick differentiated the store from similar chain. it should be noted that the perpetual-sale nonsense is basically standard for US department stores. JC Penney actually differentiated themselves by not doing that.
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Feb 8, 2019 01:53
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I was rooting for JC Penny’s too, the perpetual sale thing is bullshit.
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Feb 8, 2019 01:58
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The SportChek near me is closing down, and it brings to mind an interesting point: what if closing stores actually increases the rate at which people decide "oh gently caress it I'll order online" and creates a death spiral? Before, if I couldn't find something at the SportChek I can walk to, since I already had it in my head that I want this thing right now, I'd ask them to check other stores and then consider actually driving a place to get it. But if there's no chance of me getting that thing without driving in the first place, and I can delay gratification for lack of a better term, I'm that much more likely to just buy online.
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Feb 8, 2019 02:47
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MiddleOne posted:I think it's accurate to say that malls are a form of natural localized monopolies. There is a high barrier to entry (building the goddamn thing) and positive network externalities (by gathering a cluster of stores within walking distance). Once the mall is established, having a business outside of the mall becomes significantly more difficult as the consumer can drive to the mall and browse several stores in a very short time-frame. In this way malls effectively monopolize huge chunks of consumer demand and retail space demand within a limited geographical area. The only real way to compete for a long time was by building a larger mall or one within a shorter distance. The browsing advantage works when a bunch of stores of the same type are clustered together, in this case clothing, so it might be true there. JnnyThndrs posted:I was rooting for JC Penny’s too, the perpetual sale thing is bullshit. PT6A posted:what if closing stores actually increases the rate at which people decide "oh gently caress it I'll order online" and creates a death spiral?
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Feb 8, 2019 10:24
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Didn't something like that happen to games because, at least around here, stores were reducing their selection long before Steam took off and buying games online became big? And after Steam became popular you couldn't really buy games in regular stores anymore unless you only wanted the latest WoW/Sims expansion and whatever console-based AAA fps was popular at the moment. Not even sure if they still sell games these days or if it's all minecraft t-shirts and mario figures.
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Feb 8, 2019 14:44
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Well GameStop is dieng so that’s pretty true. I go into GameStop when I’m around and it’s pointless. Their prices are worse almost always on games and most of the store is just funko pops and other garbage trinkets nobody would buy.
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Feb 8, 2019 14:57
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I should make an effort post here at some point, I worked at GameStop from 2004 to 2014 mostly as a manager and saw all of the lurching too little too late stuff they blew a ton of money on to try to get involved in digital games close up and oh man.  Pointless really is the best way to describe them now between the prices and the emphasis on cheap nerd trinkets. It's like if Loot Crate was a store.
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Feb 8, 2019 15:47
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Australia's terrible online infrastructure means hardware still has a niche, but EB Games down here (which was bought out by Gamestop iirc) is about half video game merchandise at least. That said, video game stores have neglected, limited and overpriced PC games as long as I can remember.
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Feb 8, 2019 16:08
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Australia's terrible online infrastructure means hardware still has a niche, but EB Games down here (which was bought out by Gamestop iirc) is about half video game merchandise at least. In the EB Games in the US it used to be the opposite, you'd always find some random cool PC game in the $5-$15 range.
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Feb 8, 2019 17:38
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OneEightHundred posted:
I went to a store called Batteries and Bulbs to replace an inset ceiling flood bulb and they had a choice of 1.
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Feb 8, 2019 17:50
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One of my first jobs in the US was at Electronic's Boutique, which at the time sold games but also quite a few other things like small PC parts, burnable CDs and DVDs and so on. Putting aside the laughable pay, I worked there for a bit over two years. Halfway through my tenure they were bought out and renamed by Gamestop, and things went to poo poo so fast it was almost funny. Ridiculous quotas, tons of pressure to sell things like system warranties while lowering the incentive to the workers, and they went all in on those game resurfacing kits that usually didn't work and punished the stores if they didn't sell enough of the loving things. I've come to the conclusion that every time a smaller company is bought out by a larger one it objectively makes things worse for everyone apart from shareholders, because a company gets huge by being a bigger bastard than others. There's a small regional chain of popular grocery stores near where I now live that's been family owned for decades, but was just sold to some big conglomerate. I perversely look forward to how they are going to make life even worse for the employees and customers while lining their own pockets.
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Feb 8, 2019 19:51
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Neo Rasa posted:I should make an effort post here at some point, I worked at GameStop from 2004 to 2014 mostly as a manager and saw all of the lurching too little too late stuff they blew a ton of money on to try to get involved in digital games close up and oh man.
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Feb 8, 2019 21:37
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I'm gonna take this moment to be nostalgic about old timey computer software stores. Back when they still carried productivity software, and in fact, that was the main draw. Egghead had all the games in the back half; Babbages had them sequestered in one corner. And Waldensoft made them feel like a fun afterthought. I miss those days. It made computer gaming (and it was always *just* computer games at these; video games belonged in *toy* stores, computer games were for fancy lads) feel somehow more legitimate.
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Feb 8, 2019 21:37
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I saw an old episode of Law & Order a while back where the detectives visited a computer shop and I just about died from nostalgia.
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Feb 9, 2019 00:58
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Cicero posted:Moving to nerd culture poo poo is actually a smart move I think. That's probably a growth market. There's a store here in Munich called The Item Shop that's pretty much nothing but gamer nerd poo poo that isn't actually games. Oh don't get me wrong, in theory it's a GREAT move. Just GameStop's execution is bad and they've been falling ever since. There's plenty of successful stores like this in the US but they focus on having enough passionate employees around that they can shoot the poo poo with customers for a while, hold regular nerd-activity things to get people coming by regularly, and so on. You go into a GameStop in the US and it's like, the exact same experience as always with not enough/not well trained retail employees and the nerd stuff available has no middle ground. Like everything's either the Funko Pop and etc. super cheap (but overpriced in the store) tchotchkes in a bin and last year's action figures and the opposite extreme of like $400 Harley Quinn statues in glass cases.
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Feb 9, 2019 01:32
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There really isn't a middle ground unless you desperately want to be overflowing with NECA crap that might sell or might shelfwarm for years. There's still Aliens toys at my local indie shop from the 30th anniversary line 3 years ago. e: that said, if you're willing to stock anime merch, Revoltechs and Figmas are basically your middle ground there, and those are both less crappily-sculpted and more popular.
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Feb 9, 2019 01:40
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Golbez posted:I'm gonna take this moment to be nostalgic about old timey computer software stores. Back when they still carried productivity software, and in fact, that was the main draw. Egghead had all the games in the back half; Babbages had them sequestered in one corner. And Waldensoft made them feel like a fun afterthought. The local Fred Meyer was a fun place to see that change over the years. It started with one wall of the electronics section being half video games and half computer software, with the computer games being in between. Slowly both types of games took more shelf space until it was something like 70% video games, 25% computer games and the productivity software taking as much space as computer games originally did.
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Feb 9, 2019 01:50
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I remember productivity software being the thing too. Icon Do It!LORD OF BOOTY posted:There really isn't a middle ground unless you desperately want to be overflowing with NECA crap that might sell or might shelfwarm for years. There's still Aliens toys at my local indie shop from the 30th anniversary line 3 years ago. I guess GameStop is hosed then. Good.
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Feb 9, 2019 04:39
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I installed a PC game off of a DVD last week; on my life I couldn't tell you in which year I last did that. I'm still somewhat surprised that physical copies of console games still exist, and I tend to favour those over purely digital downloads. I'm paranoid that as the years pass I'm going to not be able to play old favourites because I can no longer download them on hardware that still works because all of the downloads for the Nintendo switch are no longer hosted as the most recent console is the Switcherooniedoonie VI that exists in the 4th dimension. The original Wii's shop is gone and I'm already starting to worry about my PS3. I prefer to buy digital PC games on GOG rather than Steam because, as much of a monolith as the latter is, it can't last forever. Neither can GOG, but at least their game installers can be downloaded in full and saved on disc to be installed later.
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Feb 9, 2019 05:23
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JustJeff88 posted:One of my first jobs in the US was at Electronic's Boutique, which at the time sold games but also quite a few other things like small PC parts, burnable CDs and DVDs and so on. Putting aside the laughable pay, I worked there for a bit over two years. Halfway through my tenure they were bought out and renamed by Gamestop, and things went to poo poo so fast it was almost funny. Ridiculous quotas, tons of pressure to sell things like system warranties while lowering the incentive to the workers, and they went all in on those game resurfacing kits that usually didn't work and punished the stores if they didn't sell enough of the loving things. This makes sense when you realize all the CEOs in charge came from the 80s and grew up during that whole "greed is good" and so they only look at min-maxing the short term gains at the cost of long term growth because the belief was that you could dick customers and always flip the stock onto new suckers once it grew enough.
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Feb 9, 2019 22:03
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Magius1337est posted:This makes sense when you realize all the CEOs in charge came from the 80s and grew up during that whole "greed is good" and so they only look at min-maxing the short term gains at the cost of long term growth because the belief was that you could dick customers and always flip the stock onto new suckers once it grew enough. Oh, I agree with you completely and am well aware of the reality, I'm just sharing an example. I've hardly been shy about stating my horror at and distaste for the people who run these huge companies, their parasitic shareholders, the harm that they do to working people and the problems, both ethical and structural, of capitalism in general.
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Feb 9, 2019 22:27
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I'd go to a mall if there was anything to buy at a mall other than clothes. It's not a matter of "maybe these two clothes stores are too similar and split the customer base" it's every loving store in the mall, bar 3 specialty shops, is a basically identical clothing store. I guess it's high-margin enough to survive as retail but it's murder on your customer base when you have massive tracts of real-estate devoted to wear-once teen fashion.
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Feb 10, 2019 05:19
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There are different types of clothing stores for different types of people
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Feb 10, 2019 05:23
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FCKGW posted:There are different types of clothing stores for different types of people Sure, outside malls. There's a very specific market segment being catered to there. If I want anything other than that there's some good outdoor outlet centers or standalone stores.
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Feb 10, 2019 06:01
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Magius1337est posted:This makes sense when you realize all the CEOs in charge came from the 80s and grew up during that whole "greed is good" and so they only look at min-maxing the short term gains at the cost of long term growth because the belief was that you could dick customers and always flip the stock onto new suckers once it grew enough. While many corporate raiders existed in the 80s incl. Trump . Not every CEO was out for greed. Look at revlons CEO or Nucorp in the 1980s. Or circuit city before the fall
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Feb 10, 2019 06:03
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Harik posted:I'd go to a mall if there was anything to buy at a mall other than clothes. It's not a matter of "maybe these two clothes stores are too similar and split the customer base" it's every loving store in the mall, bar 3 specialty shops, is a basically identical clothing store. I was looking for Reebok sneakers to try on. I went to literally 5 stores and they all only stock Nike and Adidas only. What is the point of having 5 stores all selling exactly the same thing next door to each other? The promise of clustering stores in one place like that is that there's a greater variety of merchandise or at least price competition, but neither of these things happened. The only benefit is that you don't have to leave a store to get shoes + whatever else.
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Feb 10, 2019 06:25
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Harik posted:I'd go to a mall if there was anything to buy at a mall other than clothes. It's not a matter of "maybe these two clothes stores are too similar and split the customer base" it's every loving store in the mall, bar 3 specialty shops, is a basically identical clothing store. I'm sorry that there's not a mall tailored specifically to your interests (because it'd be nothing but taco bells and realdoll outlets) QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Feb 10, 2019 |
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Feb 10, 2019 06:47
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Harik posted:Sure, outside malls. There's a very specific market segment being catered to there. If I want anything other than that there's some good outdoor outlet centers or standalone stores. Sounds like your mall sucks.
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Feb 10, 2019 07:20
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FCKGW posted:Sounds like your mall sucks. Nah, its like A Thing with malls. 90% of the stores are targeted toward upper middle class white women sizes 00-7, and the people those women buy clothes for.
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Feb 10, 2019 15:57
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Xae posted:Nah, its like A Thing with malls. This seem very unlikely. Can you to post the websites of the malls near you so people can verify what they sell?
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Feb 10, 2019 17:27
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Xae posted:90% of the stores are targeted toward upper middle class white women sizes 00-7, and the people those women buy clothes for. Maybe you have a weirdo mall but this seems like you going off on some weird made up mall thing and trying to sound woke about it by trying to blame "white women".
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Feb 10, 2019 17:30
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nepetaMisekiryoiki posted:This seem very unlikely. Can you to post the websites of the malls near you so people can verify what they sell? https://www.ridgedalecenter.com/en/directory/ https://www.galleriaedina.com/directory-1/ https://www.simon.com/mall/southdale-center/stores https://www.edenprairiecenter.com/directory/ These are the major malls in the western half of the Twin Cities metro area.
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Feb 10, 2019 17:52
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Malls target the market of people that go to "shop" not necessarily to buy, because that's what the mall owners can point to when setting rents, those are the people buying poo poo at the food court and eating at the restaurants and making impulse purchases at the kiosks. The sort of person like me, who views purchasing something as a mission where the ideal solution is to get in, purchase an appropriate item, and leave as quickly as possible, is not the ideal customer that a mall wants to focus on. Malls can't survive on that because then they serve absolutely no benefit over an independent store location. The disconnect is that, increasingly, stores aimed at the first market are not making enough money to survive, hence the death of malls in general.
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Feb 10, 2019 17:56
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Xae posted:https://www.ridgedalecenter.com/en/directory/ It's funny that a list of malls in the twin cities didn't include the Mall of America
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Feb 10, 2019 18:00
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HootTheOwl posted:It's funny that a list of malls in the twin cities didn't include the Mall of America Its on the eastern half of the metro area. Its also avoided like the plague by most locals.
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Feb 10, 2019 18:06
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Women be shopping!
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Feb 10, 2019 18:11
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FCKGW posted:Women be shopping! Well, if you bothered to read the discussion you would see that isn't what people are discussing. They are discussing the opposite. There are too many malls chasing the same demographic and even with in those malls the stores are all competing for that demographic and it isn't working out. But I think we've reached the point in the weekend where people's desire to shitpost is overwhelming their literacy.
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Feb 10, 2019 18:14
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