ความคิดเห็นที่ 4
อีกเรื่อง (จะครบแล้ว) (จากhttp://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/news/hits/031122econ.htm)
From Thanksgiving in America next week, through Christmas and Japan's winter gift-giving, to the Chinese New Year in February, shops around the world enjoy their busiest time of the year (see chart). It used to be a time when shoppers flocked to department stores to be enthralled(=excited มั้ง) by the huge variety of goods on display and to be enticed with new ideas for gifts. The scene has become a movie cliche. But today more and more people are shopping elsewhere, and department stores have become an endangered species. Their owners are desperately searching for ways to bring them back to life.
On State Street in downtown Chicago, the Marshall Field's flagship exemplifies the challenges that department stores are facing everywhere. Many of the brands that adorn the "cathedral of all stores", as Marshall Field himself called the present building, can also be found in the boutiques along nearby glitzy Michigan Avenue. Meanwhile, out in the suburbs, the shopping malls boast department stores too, ranging from J.C. Penney to Sears and more Marshall Field's, all of them selling much the same thing.
Throughout the malls there are speciality retailers, such as Victoria's Secret, Foot Locker and RadioShack. Then there are giant warehouse-like superstores that specialise in selling things such as shoes and home appliances. And as if that were not enough, gift hunters can also visit the supermarkets, which long ago ventured beyond selling just food. Finally there are the discounters, of which Wal-Mart, where 80% of American households now shop at least once a year, is by far the biggest. For those who prefer to stay at home, there are mail-order catalogues, the internet and TV-shopping channels to explore.
On a down escalator
Faced with so much competition, department stores have been steadily losing business to other retailers. In 1990, conventional stores accounted for 2.5% of total household income in America, according to the International Council of Shopping Centres. A decade later, their share had tumbled to just 1.6%. With combined sales of $91 billion in America last year, department stores are being left behind by the growth of discount chains such as Wal-Mart, which had combined sales of $139 billion in 2002, and warehouse clubs and superstores like Costco, whose total sales were $192 billion.
These changes are not confined to America. In Japan, some stores have decided it is more lucrative to rent out sales floors as offices rather than to try to sell merchandise. Even in China, where personal wealth is rapidly rising, the authorities in Shanghai earlier this year merged some of the city's big retailers, including the illustrious Shanghai No. 1 Department Store, because of increasing competition.
What the stores need is a new way to attract the attention of shoppers, who are now behaving quite differently from the way they did a generation ago. Many practise what is known as "laser-shopping", entering a retail outlet to buy a particular product at a particular price, having already compared prices and quality online. By and large, such shoppers are happy to help themselves and have no need of a sales assistant.
For a large number of people, department stores are now a place to visit only during a sale. Some stores have almost thrown in their lot with the discounters, making their sales more frequent and trying to slug it out on price alone. But their cost structures make it unlikely that such a strategy will succeed. Many may simply have to close.
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tidtee_1 
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28 ธ.ค. 46 21:36:19
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