Retailers With Passion
By Steve Smith -- TWICE, 8/4/2003
During tough times everyone needs to be reminded, with real-life examples, of what you should be aspiring to, if you want to give something your best effort.
That is the spirit of our "Retailers To Watch" feature (see p. 14), which profiles 15 specialty electronics and appliance retailers. The goal of this report is to remind our retail readers which business models, store designs, marketing plans and other approaches continue to work even during times like these.
While our list of retailers we decided to profile is by no means comprehensive, it certainly wasn't arbitrary either. TWICE editors had certain opinions about what retailers have been doing a good job in the past year or so, based on what we have observed and heard in the field. We then went out and conferred with various retail organizations, buying groups and the like, as well as manufacturers, to see what they thought.
By the end of the process, we had plenty more than 15 retailers that were worthy of note. What we tried to do is cover many types and sizes of retailers that sell electronics and appliances. Our 15 retailers run the gamut, from specialists who only sell mobile electronics or sell and install A/V systems, to regional electronics/appliance powerhouses, a company known for camera sales, another known for PCs, a buying group, and even a department store, if you can believe it.
Not all the retailers profiled are unqualified successes. Gateway, for instance, is revamping itself to become a CE-focused operation, since the PC business is still in the doldrums. Good Guys, which posted its first profit in seven years during fiscal year 2002, recorded a fiscal first quarter loss this year. But it hopes its cost-cutting during the past year and its emphasis on its upscale CE strengths will enable it to reach profitability again once the Northern California economy it relies upon turns around. The bottom line is that both retailers were willing to try new things to turn around their respective businesses.
If you read a few of the profiles, you will probably pick up a few common themes, or common characteristics, of the retailers we selected. Customer service, a well-trained sales staff, good product assortment, a willingness to expand or redesign their stores due to industry changes, entering new profitable categories (and getting out of unprofitable ones), are among the strengths that surface often.
Given all the problems and heartache that can sometimes be applied to electronics/appliance retailing, many of the executives with these 15 retailers have to be romantics. They have to be called that because all of them infuse their respective operations with a passion for this business.
In a cutthroat, margin-hungry industry, their passion for their businesses may be one of the prime reasons that certain retailers in this business win, and others lose. And in the words of Elmer Karl of Karl's TV & Appliances, "a good credit record with the agencies and the banks," doesn't hurt.
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