esrosedotblog

MERCHANTS

The mattress experience also presented a new world of department store buying.

Macy's.

It is a peerless service machine. Nice people. Good prices. Extreme followup, emails, guarantees. Even the delivery men were handsome! And we had the mattress less than 24 hours after we bought it.

I used to work for the Federated and Allied chains of big name stores. They did not own the stores per se but had an interest and provided services.

It was a place of desperate politics and backward management. A lot were family owned or the equivalent with second and third generation management.

The work was not difficult, the people were nice, but they were a slow motion train wreck and not getting any better.

I quit on them as a customer.

But this is a new thing. It is no wonder that Macy's came out on top.

In this case, at least, big is better. Obviously it is well managed.

But more, they are true merchants. When I worked for the stores, the merchants were king and then they were not.

The numbers guys came in. The big box guys came in. The first in first out inventory came in. The just on time delivery.

The link between the people who bought the stuff and the customer was lost.

Sure, there were some dumb parts to the old merchant system. The liberal returns policy and so on.

But you go to the boxes or any of the other new retail places and there is no merchandising at the consumer level. It is all take it or leave it. Not Macy's.

I will go back.

Labels: business, culture, management, shopping