Last year I penned an opinion piece about what I thought the new private ownership of venerable Canadian retailer HBC needed to do in order to stem the bleeding and revive the brand.
Well, after almost a year, what positive changes have they wrought?
Not too many, as far as I can see.
I'd like to say that I shop at The Bay and Zellers, HBC's two primary banners. Sadly, a more accurate statement is that I try to shop there, but HBC is not going out of their way to encourage me.
The Bay's stores remain, for the most part, vibrant looking, clean, and well stocked. Unfortunately, they never seem to be well stocked with things that I would like to buy. Expeditions in the past year for menswear, clothing for my infant child, kitchen gadgets and furniture have been disappointing, to say the least.
Zellers, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be trying any more. Pressured by both Wal-mart and Superstore, as well as newer entrants into the general merchandise game like London Drugs, Zellers' decline in store appeal has been dramatic. With a retailer's eye, I see unstocked shelves, messy displays, and apathetic employees with dead eyes who wear their red jerseys like an albatross around their necks.
Do you know what strikes me the most, and I consider to be a bellweather of the state of HBC?
The shopping carts.
Shopping carts are expensive. They cost at least two hundred dollars each, sometimes a lot more. And every outlet of your chain needs dozens, sometimes hundreds, of them. And they have hard lives being banged around the store and the parking lot, and often need replacing.
What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? Well, shopping carts are a link in the chain that creates the shopping experience. They are the basket that your shoppers put their goods in. Do the wheels jam? Is the strap for the child seat broken? Has the cart been dinged in the parking lot too many times and now steers to the left? Are there any in the corrals by the doors for shoppers to use? All of those little irritations are black marks that customers will strike against you, subconsciously or otherwise.
Zeller's fleet of shopping carts gets more sad and dilapidated every time I try to shop there. Seriously, go to the Zellers near you and try to find a cart that a homeless person would actually want to lay claim to. I'm embarrased on behalf of store management at the state of their carts.
And The Bay? Where are their carts? I worked for HBC in 2000 when they rolled out a fleet of shiny, black, artsy-looking carts, aimed at the hip, with-it soccer moms that The Bay caters to. At the doors and beside the cash desks are lonely corrals where the carts used to be. But they're all gone. Whether they were all annexed by hip, with-it homeless people, or quietly eliminated because a focus group led by a consulting company told HBC senior management that their customers don't want shopping carts is a mystery that has yet to be answered.
Just like how salesmen of a certain age tell you that you can tell a lot about your customer by their shoes, so too as a retail expert can you tell a lot about a retailer by their shopping carts. In the case of HBC, the prognosis is not good.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
HBC's new ownership, one year later. Do the details tell a story?
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2 comments:
That shopping cart thing is true.
There is an Albertsons pretty close to my place. It is called "The Ghetto Albertsons" by my friends who live over by me.
The carts all shake and jump like they have hydraulics systems installed. You have to lean into them to get them to go anywhere near straight.
I would couple the cart thing with cashier friendliness as well. The Ghetto Albertsons is run by working class black and Mexicans. Not that that's a bad thing in and of itself, but there isn't a lot of professional attitude in the employees. There's a lot of screaming for someone two aisles over, gossiping women who look at you like "I'm on a break. I'll take my break right here and talk to my friend. I don't need to go to a break room." There are spills that get stepped over because "I didn't make that mess." I know, I've seen "the look" a thousand times. You can tell when somebody has the "not my job" attitude.
I drive further away to shop at a cleaner, tighter, more professional Vons. Prices are nearly the same, distance is about twice as far.
There're also two competing pharmacies right next to each other in the area. Same thing. One is clean, good carts, etc. The other must hire straight out of women's penal colonies and halfway houses. Lots of neck tattoos, finger tattoos and "not my job" attitude. Last time I was in there I was in line with about ten other people. The cashier picked up the phone and over the loudspeaker said, "Maria, check please. Maria, check please."
Maria walked up to the bank of registers, unhitched a phone and said, "John, check please. John, check please."
John walked up, unhitched a phone, "Mark, check please. Mark ..."
Nobody came. They were all apparently "with customers" when a manager called them out on it. I was in line a good five minutes longer than I had to be.
I'll go to the pharmacy across the street from now on.
Lee,
Not surprised by what I have read. Just how long do you think this store will last? Do you think that Macy's or Nordstrom will fill in?
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