STORES Magazine - July 2008 - (Page T16)

2OO8 • TOP 1OO retailers Sponsored by POWER PLAYERS • SMALL-FORMAT retailers Company Dollar General Family Dollar Big Lots Dollar Tree Stores Fred’s 99 Cents Only N.A. Not available 2007 Revenues (000) $9,495,246 6,834,305 4,656,302 4,242,600 1,780,923 1,199,374 ComparableStore Sales 2.1% 0.9 2.0 2.7 0.3 4.0 Sales per Store $1,154,858 1,048,323 3,441,465 1,243,799 2,487,322 4,525,940 ollar stores were all the rage just a few years ago, touted as vehicles to counter big-box mass merchants’ march across the landscape. More than a few things have happened in the interim, however, and these small-format value retailers are now fighting to get their share of the dollars consumers are trying to stretch in a tight economy. Dollar General has scaled back expansion plans from recent historical levels operating under new owner Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., the private-equity firm that took control a year ago. KKR brought in drug store and supermarket veteran Rick Dreiling to run the chain; his first assignment was to get costs under control, which he is doing by weeding out underperforming stores and combing through the inventory to eliminate underproductive SKUs. At headquarters, Dreiling has been shuffling senior management, seeking the right combination to implement his strategies. Family Dollar, which was in reinvention mode a couple of years ago, has made a number of positive moves, pursuing an urban strategy that has largely kept many of its new store locations from bumping into Wal-Mart. Inside the stores, Family Dollar has been using general merchandise — particularly home goods and apparel — to create a “treasure hunt” ambience while expanding supermarket merchandise to 72 drive traffic. Larger grocery D sections were installed in about 2,800 of the chain’s 6,500 locations during the current fiscal year. Dollar Tree has maintained a low 35 profile while reorganizing its corporate structure, and Fred’s has also been making strategic moves to enhance its performance, marking some 75 stores for closings. Among Fred’s other initiatives are trimming capital spending and slowing the pace of expansion (though it will open 18 stores and 15 pharmacies this year), cutting corporate overhead 10 percent and initiating multiple merchandising programs to enhance margin and address shifts in the sales mix. Closeout chain Big Lots is still on the road to recovery, finding pockets of success in consumables and seasonal goods. POWER PLAYERS • NON-STORE retailers mazon is the standard-bearer for retailers without stores, but there is nothing standard about what the Seattle-based company has accomplished as it has grown into a $15 billion entity while operating in the black. Amazon is more about the future than last year’s results or this year’s performance, and it has blazed the e-commerce trail with operations so sophisticated that some observers view it as a technology company that happens to sell goods. Its potential is seen as larger that its accomplishments. So good is it at what it does, Amazon lets other merchants piggyback on its capabilities through its web services operation. On its own, Amazon sells jewelry, watches, housewares, consumer electronics, home goods and all kinds of general merchandise, although books, music and A 43 T16 STORES / JULY 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - July 2008

STORES Magazine - July 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Dearth of Retail Creativity What Shoppers Think Wow, Is That a Wawa? 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Merchandising Strategy Concept2Watch Point of Sale Outsourcing Human Resources Top 100 Retailers Store Design RFID IT Operations Systems Managements LP Vantage Point Newsbeat Cover Story Emergency Response Systems Background Checks LOEB Retail Letter Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - July 2008

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