Posting Freak
So Freddy , which business school did you graduate from? 
I hear what you're saying and I'm reasonably certain I understand most of whats going on in retail, food or otherwise (although some mysteries remain) but spaghetti, dental floss and potato chips are pretty mainstream items and for each of those items there are multiple, identical brands on the shelf. If you ask me it would be good business in this ultra-competetive marketplace to carry some niche items that will bring in those looking for it - odds are they might even do the rest of their shopping there if the prices aren't out of line, maybe even pay a little bit more on some stuff.
We've had several instances of retailers failing here in Canada because they followed the model of "you'll buy what we give you" - the most recent one is Sears Canada. Closing its doors after many years, they've been around my whole life and when I was growing up they were a great department store. My mom bought all of our clothes there as well as appliances etc. So they stopped being a true department store years ago and then started streamlining their brands to stuff people didn't want to buy and they clearly haven't been able to compete in the digital world so goodbye, thousands of employees losing their jobs. The ironic thing about Sears not reading the tea leaves on the internet shopping thing is that they originated as a catalogue sales business. You could buy an entire house from their catalogue and they would ship it to you. Now they can't even ship you a pair of shoes. Sad. We've had a few other family run national or regional department stores fail in the past due to succession issues - founders die and pass on the business to inept family members who proceed to make epically bad decisions and boom, gone, thousands lose their jobs.
Surprisingly Target failed in Canada after only a few years. I wasn't surprised after the President of Target Canada went on the record prior to opening their first store here saying that Canadians couldn't expect the same selection and low prices as there are in US Targets because it was a different market in Canada, i.e., less competition so they could price higher. They figured they'd come in and sell us poor selection of limited/undesirable brands at high prices. It was hilarious to go up to the Target not far from my home and wander, virtually alone in this massive store filled with merchandise I had no interest in buying and apparently nobody else had any interest either. I don't think they made it 5 years. I don't know how they thought they could deviate from the model that made them successful in the US and which many, many Canadians were very familiar with due to cross border shopping. We may not be rocket scientists but we aren't completely stupid. And we're good enough at math to be able to quickly calculate the US$ exchange rate plus tax etc to know when we're getting the shaft which is most of the time.
Back to mustard, I was just at the grocery store looking for some Dijon mustard and the selection was Frenchs, Heinz, store brand, and Kuhn. Oh and Grey Poupon which I bought.
I hear what you're saying and I'm reasonably certain I understand most of whats going on in retail, food or otherwise (although some mysteries remain) but spaghetti, dental floss and potato chips are pretty mainstream items and for each of those items there are multiple, identical brands on the shelf. If you ask me it would be good business in this ultra-competetive marketplace to carry some niche items that will bring in those looking for it - odds are they might even do the rest of their shopping there if the prices aren't out of line, maybe even pay a little bit more on some stuff.We've had several instances of retailers failing here in Canada because they followed the model of "you'll buy what we give you" - the most recent one is Sears Canada. Closing its doors after many years, they've been around my whole life and when I was growing up they were a great department store. My mom bought all of our clothes there as well as appliances etc. So they stopped being a true department store years ago and then started streamlining their brands to stuff people didn't want to buy and they clearly haven't been able to compete in the digital world so goodbye, thousands of employees losing their jobs. The ironic thing about Sears not reading the tea leaves on the internet shopping thing is that they originated as a catalogue sales business. You could buy an entire house from their catalogue and they would ship it to you. Now they can't even ship you a pair of shoes. Sad. We've had a few other family run national or regional department stores fail in the past due to succession issues - founders die and pass on the business to inept family members who proceed to make epically bad decisions and boom, gone, thousands lose their jobs.
Surprisingly Target failed in Canada after only a few years. I wasn't surprised after the President of Target Canada went on the record prior to opening their first store here saying that Canadians couldn't expect the same selection and low prices as there are in US Targets because it was a different market in Canada, i.e., less competition so they could price higher. They figured they'd come in and sell us poor selection of limited/undesirable brands at high prices. It was hilarious to go up to the Target not far from my home and wander, virtually alone in this massive store filled with merchandise I had no interest in buying and apparently nobody else had any interest either. I don't think they made it 5 years. I don't know how they thought they could deviate from the model that made them successful in the US and which many, many Canadians were very familiar with due to cross border shopping. We may not be rocket scientists but we aren't completely stupid. And we're good enough at math to be able to quickly calculate the US$ exchange rate plus tax etc to know when we're getting the shaft which is most of the time.
Back to mustard, I was just at the grocery store looking for some Dijon mustard and the selection was Frenchs, Heinz, store brand, and Kuhn. Oh and Grey Poupon which I bought.
