Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with retail

Where can I get Bendaroos at a retail store in NYC today?

Optimus Chyme — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:44:36 -0800

Where can I get Bendaroos at a retail store in Brooklyn or Manhattan (or Queens, if it comes to that) today? Our NYC Winter Wishes letter got shuffled around from forwarding addresses a bunch and we just got it yesterday, so I don't have time to order online.

What retailers are making best use of social media?

jbickers — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:55:52 -0800

What are some innovative ways retailers are using social media? I'm putting together a presentation on how retailers are using social media, and I'm looking for great examples. What are some innovative ways you've seen retailers use Twitter, Facebook, etc. to engage with the audience? What are the retailers that you actually engage with through this channel, and why?

Help us put Starbucks out of business, for a week.

yom3ts — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:06:00 -0800

Any tips on a short-team lease of retail space in Manhattan? Brainstormfilter: Modeled after the costume shops that pop up for a month or so around Halloween and then disappear, combined with the down retail market, we're considering a short-term lease of a small commercial space to get the word out about our brand and products. The idea would be to offer freebies to attract a crowd (did someone say free cup of coffee?), and use the space as a showroom for our equipment and for our salespeople to make some quick contacts.

Granted, Manhattan's real estate market isn't experiencing the same horrors as some other parts of the country, but if we're ever going to do this, now has to be the time. Any tips/info on leasing retail space for as short as a few weeks to a few months, tops?

Working in Retail

phrontist — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:38:52 -0800

Following a second interview tomorrow morning I will more likely than not be working at a large chain bookstore for a few months (including, obviously, the holiday season). I've never worked in retail, or anything that required me to deal with the public for that matter. I'm not expecting it to be very difficult, but is there anything I should know?

Please teach me the science of buying and selling stuff.

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:34:12 -0800

I'm considering a slight career change into the online retail sector and I'd like to know more about distribution models, purchasing from distributors and manufacturers, and how product prices are calculated. I'm in the software business right now, so I have a pretty strong grasp on how software is priced and distributed. What I really want to know is the science of buying, storing, selling and shipping physical items. How do you know what to buy and how much? When do you start adding discounts? How do you store and inventory large amounts of stuff?

There has got to be volumes written about these topics, right?

I'd like any information I can get for online businesses, ones with brick and mortar stores, and hybrids. Big or small, it doesn't matter, as I would likely join an already established business. I want to read online articles, listen to podcasts, read books, but most of all I'd love to hear firsthand from those of you with knowledge to share.

Anonymous because I'd like to keep my current job while I mull over this information.

Make Wiki do Retail

webhund — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:41:31 -0800

How could a wiki be used by a small retail business selling tangible products? I'm looking for ways to use a wiki in a small retail business to better serve its customers. Looking through example sites of various wiki-species (mediawiki, dokuwiki, etc...) leads to a dry hole of wiki usage in the retail sector.

The only authorized wiki authors/editors would be the shop owner and her staff, with editing locked down to the general internet public. The business sells high-end food ingredients to a niche culinary market, both online and at a brick/mortar store. Principal customers are restaurant chefs and home cooks/foodies.

The business uses its blog for "what's happening/good now" type of stuff and then has static product pages on its site where the details of each product are explained, all linked to the online store. Where does (or does not) a wiki fit in this?

Are there things that a locked-down, but publicly-visible wiki could do that a blog or other non-wiki CMS could not in this application? The business owner is technologically adept, is an active blogger, and is looking for new ways to use technology in a traditional retail setting.

Looking for some good retail blogs.

Dreamcast — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:28:40 -0800

Are there any good blogs about working in retail? I'm looking for some blogs in the same vein as Behind the Counter (you know, the Walmart blog), that talk about life in retail (preferably, the bigger stores, like Walmart or Target) and the various interesting things they've encountered on the job. I just find that kind of stuff fascinating, for some reason. Anyone have any suggestions for blogs like this that they've enjoyed?

Teacher Discounts @ Clothing Stores? What Other Perks Am I Missing? Astronaughts get half off at Banana?

WhereAmI — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:33:18 -0800

What "secret" discounts/benefits exist at major retail businesses (J. Crew, Banana Republic, Express, etc.) and what could qualify me for these discounts. I'm talking more long term (i.e., Teacher, Employee, etc.) as opposed to coupons or specials. I'm a teacher. I recently ran into J. Crew at lunch to grab a new shirt after a mishap with a cup of coffee and a student turning the corner without looking (I looked around for a movie film crew, but all I saw was my 6th period laughing at my stained clothes).

Luckily I had about 45 minutes before my next class so I ran to the J. Crew a few blocks away. For some reason (embarrassment?) I offered my story to the kind employee at the store who assisted me in a quick wardrobe change, and in stead of charging me full price, they scanned a bar code (one of many on a big key ring) and took 15% off of the new shirt's price.

I was stunned when he told me that J. Crew offers a 15% discount to all teachers (and he didn't even ask for my school ID or any other proof). I pointed to the multiple bar codes hanging from the key ring and asked what else I didn't know I was entitled to and he started running through a list of discounts for various qualification that J. Crew honored (teachers, students, armed forces, etc.).

I guess my question is 2 fold:

1. What other discounts are there on a semi-permanent basis (i.e., Teacher, not including coupons which don't seem like they would make it to the laminated bar-code key ring)

2. Where can I find a list of these discounts and applicable stores? I'm mainly a J. Crew, Bannana Republix (yes I have a Lux card, no I've never mentioned I'm a teach at their checkout line, but I will now!), Express.

I'm thinking there may be an equivalent retail store discount site like FlyerTalk's "stickies" (the site has a lot of time sensitive "deals" but it also has tons of old information that is permanently posted (aka "sticky") that describes how to get upgraded for free on certain airlines if you know you'll be traveling a lot in the future (for professional travelers)) that offers inside knowledge about ways to stay dressed in a classy way without breaking the bank. I'm not necessarily talking about coupon or deal sites like SlickDeals.net or DealNews.com (these seem more "rushed" or "quick coupons").

What I'm looking for is a repository of data, and maybe even some inside tips (i.e., If you tell the guy at J. Crew you are a Teacher you save 15%. What if I tell the guy at Express I am an astronaut or bring my 65 year old grandmother, will I save 40%?).

I don't want to be dishonest, I just want to be informed. Heck, I'd even bring my granda out with me and take her shopping if it saved me 40%!

TIA!

Beauty items not packaged in plastic?

toomuchkatherine — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:18:58 -0800

Plastic-free beauty filter: I'm researching how to diminish the amount of plastic I am using from day to day, and I'm about to attack my personal-care items. Does anyone have suggestions for shampoos, deodorants, face washes, lotions, toothpastes, etc., that don't come packed in plastic containers? I'm interested in commercially available stuff and also recipes I can make at home if the components aren't too plastic-y.

The best of the best

simplesharps — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:15:41 -0800

If money was no obstacle, what complete eCommerce solution would you deploy for a medium to large online company? A complete solution could mean two systems tied together, one for the website and another for inventory (think about managing a large warehouse) or a system that handles both. The perfect product could be one developed from scratch, an existing framework that we could manipulate to our specific needs or a complete ready-to-go product.

I'm trying to identify examples of best practice solutions for the medium sized company and upwards - there are plenty of solutions for the small business (magento, shopify etc)

Thanks!

Are shops allowed to add a fee for paying by credit card instead of cash?

wastelands — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:39:19 -0800

Does it go against Visa / MasterCard / etc. policy for a retail store, such as a restaurant or coffee shop, to add a charge to your order if you use credit rather than paying by cash? While it's incredibly common, I have heard that it goes against policy, and the store could actually risk punitive action from the credit card company if they were found out. True?

I believe in your product, and would like to sell it. Does that make me qualified?

lagreen — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:30:01 -0800

How can I tailor my resume for a retail job, when I usually emphasize my masters degree and five years of federal government experience? There's this really cool pastry shop that I would like to work for in a behind-the-counter capacity. I called to see if they're hiring, and they said they're "accepting resumes." I want a part-time position, and am would be doing it for the love of their beautiful and tasty products, not for the money.

I'm concerned, though, that I'll appear either not qualified at all, due to my lack of retail experience, or over-qualified, because of a masters degree. I did work as a hostess at a restaurant for a few years, but that was from 2001-2003. Should I leave my masters off the resume, and just focus on my hostessing skills, or...what?

Retail barcodes for tracking my shopping at home.

yoHighness — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:31:01 -0800

How do I get access to UK retail barcodes? I would like to build an application for scanning my shopping at home. I would like to keep track of my shopping for starters; but ideally (and utopically?), I would use database mashups to tell me how much energy was spent producing my food, which countries (dictatures) it comes from, how healthy it is, how ethical, could I have gotten cheaper deals etc. etc.
I am based in the UK. Bonus points for comments on how hard this would be to make (and as a mobile app?), and pointing me to similar projects. Thank you, hivemind!

Printo pronto in Toronto

randomination — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 08:46:31 -0800

Where can I get simple business cards printed quickly in Toronto or Mississauga? I've just realised I'm going to a conference on Saturday and I have no business cards with my new contact details on.

Where can I get about 100 reasonable-looking ones done in time to tide me over until I can do them properly?

Physical locations preferred. I can cobble together a PDF if necessary.

I wanna rock and roll all night and party ev-ery day!

Pseudology — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:55:02 -0800

I need reccomendations for music. Needs to be SFW. (No screaming death metal or excessively profane rap, etc.) I'm working retail and employees must supply the store with their own music and I intend to compile several large playlists organized by type. I usually download full discography collections by the artist but album or even individual song references are welcome.

retail or wholesale?

abirae — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:36:11 -0800

How does American Apparel make money? A friend and I have a disagreement over this that basically breaks down to: retail or wholesale? As I understand it, they started out as t-shirt wholesalers and expanded into a retail empire. But where do they make the bulk of their revenue?

They charge much higher prices for their retail clothes than for their wholesale t-shirts, but maintaining storefronts must also be a costly undertaking. The higher overhead might cancel out the higher prices. They clearly have the money for major ad campaigns and numerous store fronts so they must be making money somehow, but I don't know how to find this information.

Of course, it's also possible that they aren't making money, or that one part of their business subsidizes other parts of the business. I know very little about garment manufacturing and retail, so I'm hoping that someone with a knowledge of the biz can clue me in.

No such thing as painless systems design

ttyn — Sat, 23 May 2009 12:32:42 -0800

What are the internal business processes I should concentrate on when evaluating a clothing retailer? What are some questions I can ask the owner to help me identify where the processes could use some improvement? I want to ask the best questions in order to identify what processes could use some work/tweaking. And I want to do it in 1-2 emails max.

Any help coming up with good questions or ideas about what processes I should focus on to save us both time are more than welcome.

What is "La famille"?

mikel — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 06:37:53 -0800

Question for Montrealers! In the past few years I have noticed that some stores display a sticker on their front door that features a tree and roots and (sometimes) the words "La famille". It has a white field and the tree is cartoon-ey, green and brown. The caption is written in some kind of cursive font. What TF is this? It tends to be on some dep entrances but it's on some restaurants and other businesses as well. I've seen it mostly in the Plateau/Mile End and Outremont - but that is most likely selection bias.

Is it some kind of crypto-catholic thing? Does it mean "Catholics, what few of you are left in Quebec, can feel good shopping here?" Or something completely different?

help me get security tags off this video game

sammich — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:22:12 -0800

short of a dremel, whats the best way to open the security case of an xbox game i just got from circuit city? so i bought an xbox game during the circuit city weekend liquidation. last night when i decided to open it, i found out that they forgot to take the plastic security box case off the game. i can't go back to circuit city since they're closed for good.

i found a product description of the box here:
http://www.halometric.com/web/home/index.php?pid=24&id=37

this is similar to another askmefi post. the product description says that there is a magnetic latch and i see it but this case is completely translucent except for a small, thin silver strip flap on the bottom (it's not like what's pictured). I guess could be the magnet but none of the magnets i have around do anything to it. I dont even know which way it should shift to open.

i'm going to borrow a dremel if i can't figure it out.

How to combine multiple physical shops and an online catalog within one website

web-goddess — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:12:54 -0800

Can you think of any examples of a retailer that has both a chain of physical stores and a "shop online" section? I've been helping out a friend who owns a knitting store with his website, and now that he's expanding I think we need to rethink the way his site works. I'm just wondering how other people organise things like stock levels when more than one physical location is involved. The existing setup we have is that there is one physical bricks-and-mortar, and orders for the "online shop" are filled from there. Customers know that the stock levels shown on the website are what is physically present in the Sydney store. Now we're going to throw a couple more shops into the mix. The orders will still be filled out of the main Sydney store though, so I'm unsure whether to show multiple stock levels, just the Sydney level (along with a disclaimer), or a combined stock level (again with a disclaimer).

Also, there are plenty of mega-retail chains where the site is just all about the online catalog and the list of locations is relegated to a link in the corner. This business is a lot smaller than that, and we'd like to emphasize the character of the individual shops. The only good example I can find is Tessuti Fabrics. They make it clear in their online catalog that the stock levels only refer to one of their locations.

So, can anybody think of any similar examples? I'd like to see how other people tackle the issue.

(Incidentally, I wasn't sure whether to list this under "computers & internet" or "shopping." I'm guessing the "computers" folks might be more useful in terms of the UI issues.)

What was the name of this Best Buy-like electronics chain?

drezdn — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:46:07 -0800

Trying to remember the name of Best Buy-like chain store from the late 80s early 90s. All I can remember about it is that it was very similar to Best Buy, the company color scheme featured heavy use of green and that there was a store in Brookfield, WI. Does anyone remember this chain? I'm pretty sure they went bankrupt in the early 90s

Social Media Retail filter: Amazon Twitter Facebook mashup... does such a thing exist?

xotis — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:18:48 -0800

Social Media Retail filter: I'm trying to find examples of "best in show" social retail sites. Think "Facebook" meets "hot or not" but for rating apparel and house/home goods (for example). Bonus points if they offer the ability to follow particular users that have a good eye for style/trends that you find appealing, similar functionality to how you follow a user's feed on Twitter. I'm trying to find examples of sites, particularly ones that do social retailing well. Do any of you have any links or examples you can share?

Again, something along the lines of Facebook, where you have 'friends', can leave comments, etc, but where you can also select "favorites" for products you like from an online catalog. Then your friends can rate your selection of those items either with a thumbs-up/down or a 160 character Tweet-esque statement based on things like physical appeal, usefulness, etc. This would be separate from "reviews" from a site like Amazon, etc, as those reviews might not be from "friends". Further, it would be great if these examples offer the ability to not only look for products and add them to your profile, but to purchase those items direct from that site.

I'm sure that sites like this must exist, but I'm having a tough time finding any examples.

best time of the year to catch deeply discounted seasonal clothing at retail or online stores?

l2yangop — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:04:58 -0800

When is the best time of the year to catch deeply discounted seasonal clothing at retail or online stores? I like to buy winter clothes when spring stuff comes out, and summer clothes when fall/winter stuff comes out. I don't care that much about trends, as most of them last more than a year. I have found that i can save lots by checking clearance rack, but I want to know the best times for this.

A Good Retail/Consumer Goods Conference?

coward — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:55:55 -0800

What are some good, high-level, invitation only conferences for someone on the board of a large-cap, publicly traded company in the retail/consumer goods industry? I've been asked to make suggestions of conferences to attend for a board member of a company in the retail industry (a large-cap, publicly traded company).

The board member is new to the company and looking to get acquainted over the next year with the big picture issues facing the industry.

I've done a lot of poking around online and come up short for the most part (I unfortunately just missed this: Retail Industry Leaders Conference). I've found plenty of low-level, broad spectrum trade shows and expos for the retail world as well as conferences for people at his level but that aren't retail-focused.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Best,
Coward

Best practices for inventory control basics such as assigning SKU numbers?

wam — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:01:22 -0800

What are best practices for assigning SKU numbers to products? And is there a book that covers the absolute basics of inventory control? I'm setting up an e-commerce site for a small business that will sell hardware accessories and soft goods over the internet. The business has essentially no inventory control system in place, so that's step one. I'm looking for a good book or even just advice on the basics of inventory management.

I want to assign Stock Keeping Units to all of their product variations. There seem to be advantages to using a schema more complex than just an integer for each product, so that the SKU itself carries information about the product. Some of the examples I've seen separate the SKU into fields with meanings, such as product groups, sizes, or colors. Are there standard ways of creating such distinctions with an appropriate granularity? I associate this with composite keys in relational database design, but I'm not sure how applicable that is, and I feel like I'm reinventing the wheel.

Most of the inventory control books I've found on Amazon appear to be about more advanced topics like stock forecasting. I need to get my head around the basics. Can anyone recommend a general reference, or help me improve my understanding of this particular task?