Retail Cycles are Like Anything Else....they Go Round and Round.

There are cycles to everything and they are not necessarily bad. I remember a conversation I had many years ago with Chuck Griffin, a former President of then Sanger Harris in Dallas.

This was probably 25 years ago and Chuck was telling me about the old days....He told me that years ago all the Specialty Stores got together and decided to move into one building and share rent..thus the department store was born.

Department stores were all the rage; You could go to one building and find everything you need. Years later that cycled slowed and consumers were more interested in Specialty Stores, places where they could go that catered to their tastes, and skip everything else they weren't interested in.

The current cycle we are deep into at the moment is a consolidation. The Country, even the World is way over retailed. There was more retail per person then there was money, even in a strong economy, so what is happening is almost natural.

Marginal retailers are going, going and gone. Look at the most recent loss, Circuit City, who announced that it was liquidating their stores. No offense Circuit City, but I never got you anyway.

I shopped there occasionally but always wound up at Best Buy or a local Specialty Store. I never liked there store layout or there selection. It wasn't price, or even customer service, they just looked to me like they weren't really representing anything... a little of this and a little of that.

If your going to mean something today, you better stand for something. Don't dabble in this and that. This is not a time to try and cater to the world, Specialize in something.

Niche marketing; Apparel stores, in my opinion can't be from Dad to Lad anymore. Plus Size stores, Prom Stores, Evening Stores, or just a good theme to your store with a direct customer in mind will take you farther than the a-z approach.

The present consolidation has not taken any stores that I will miss, and I don't think that you will miss most of them either.

The same is happening at every level of the economy.....sorry, but will I really miss Wachovia Bank?
My company has lost competitors, but were they really needed in the first place? Wholesale apparel companies were a dime a dozen. The strong, and the ones that are focused will survive.

The ladies wholesale clothing business, like the retail business is going through a consolidation. This is another cycle in fashion that seems to always be in fashion!