with 'retail' tag

shopping vs. buying

Amazon and Walmart: Are the trade-offs we make to shop there worth it? - Vox

What you do with Amazon is actually not shopping; it’s buying. Largely, it’s a very transactional relationship that people have with it. Every so often, there’s an Amazon dress or Amazon whatever, but usually, you’re being sent to the site for some very specific reason. You’re transacting, you’re fulfilling some desire or need. But the idea that you’re browsing or enjoying yourself or window shopping or getting some kind of entertainment value is something they’ve been terrible at. And they’ve tried for years. They’re best at selling stuff that lends itself to transactions and not shopping.

this is a great observation, and i wonder how we could be shifting our website to encourage more shopping and not just buying. or maybe that’s a fool’s errand, we should just streamline the buying as much as possible and focus our time and energy on our in-store experience.

nike steps back into retail

i am not really a sneakerhead, but i’m out on the periphery of it and as someone with an interest in retail and small business, i followed the news about how nike pulled out of retailers to focus on direct-to-consumer sales. the news now is that nike is re-engaging with at least some of the retailers it had left, including dsw and macy’s. “Nike’s Wholesale Pivot: A Masterclass In Omnichannel Strategy” posits that they took advantage of the pandemic chaos to reset their relationships, which looks pretty plausible.

the impact and implentation of direct-to-consumer sales is a big issue in the art supply industry and i don’t know if there is any company in particular that i would point to as having figured out the best balance.

but empty retail space is a dream

saeed farkhondehpour, developer of the medallion at 4th and main in downtown los angeles, plans to challenge the downtown women’s center’s plans to open a second-hand store because he thinks “a lot of people will not want to come shop near secondhand stores.”

so the toy district, where you can find blocks of stores selling nearly the exact same items, would somehow be tarnished by a second-hand store run by a non-profit organization in a space that is currently just a building behind an iron fence.

yeah, i don’t buy it.

famima!! is becoming the abc store of downtown los angeles.