Regarding Costco’s “Home” store experiment, we got several emails.
One MNB user wrote:
“I just find it strange that Costco would venture into the "home" store market in Seattle, right near an IKEA that is doing extremely well. Hard to compete with their selection and prices.”
Agreed. This store isn’t even on the same planet as IKEA.
Another MNB user wrote:
“I am a big fan of Costco and spend a lot of money there -- business, personal and for community organizations.
“That said, Costco seems to assign its new concept stores to locations that are losers as traditional Costco's.
“Try as we might, none of us can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.”
Regarding Kmart’s approach, one MNB user wrote to agree with our observations on the matter:
“I had an old boss who said ‘one can not save enough money to make a company profitable, it must be done by sales and managing expenses.’”
No argument here.
We also got an interesting email from MNB user Richard A. Cognetti Jr. of Kinney Drugs:
“Not sure what they are doing in our local Super K’s. We visited some of our competitors last week to review the baby category and they carried no baby wipes in the category. We carry a dozen SKUs, Wal-Mart had 22 SKUs. Stores are lacking inventory across multiple categories. Perhaps credit issues, but nonetheless they are going nowhere fast. This was a store that survived the first cut. Must also question the marketing value of a line of Martha Stewart baby clothing?????? Was collecting dust.”
If you don’t know what Kmart is doing, then you may be a perfect candidate to join upper management…
Okay, that was a little cruel.
One MNB user wrote:
“I just find it strange that Costco would venture into the "home" store market in Seattle, right near an IKEA that is doing extremely well. Hard to compete with their selection and prices.”
Agreed. This store isn’t even on the same planet as IKEA.
Another MNB user wrote:
“I am a big fan of Costco and spend a lot of money there -- business, personal and for community organizations.
“That said, Costco seems to assign its new concept stores to locations that are losers as traditional Costco's.
“Try as we might, none of us can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.”
Regarding Kmart’s approach, one MNB user wrote to agree with our observations on the matter:
“I had an old boss who said ‘one can not save enough money to make a company profitable, it must be done by sales and managing expenses.’”
No argument here.
We also got an interesting email from MNB user Richard A. Cognetti Jr. of Kinney Drugs:
“Not sure what they are doing in our local Super K’s. We visited some of our competitors last week to review the baby category and they carried no baby wipes in the category. We carry a dozen SKUs, Wal-Mart had 22 SKUs. Stores are lacking inventory across multiple categories. Perhaps credit issues, but nonetheless they are going nowhere fast. This was a store that survived the first cut. Must also question the marketing value of a line of Martha Stewart baby clothing?????? Was collecting dust.”
If you don’t know what Kmart is doing, then you may be a perfect candidate to join upper management…
Okay, that was a little cruel.
- KC's View:
