STORES Magazine - July 2008 - (Page T17)

2OO8 • TOP 1OO retailers Sponsored by POWER PLAYERS • HOME IMPROVEMENT retailers company puts in utilities and engages local home builders to develop the real estate with the understanding that materials will be purchased from Menards. In Yorkville, Ill., for example, Menards purchased enough real estate for more than 160 singlefamily homes and 69 townhouse condominiums. Once these units are occupied, Menards has a ready-made core group of consumers in the immediate vicinity. Lumber Liquidators has carved out a specialty niche in this segment by selling flooring at deep discounts, whether it’s 80 cents per square foot for down-scale laminate or 10 times as much for tropical hardwoods. The 130-store retailer, headquartered in Toano, Va., generated just over $400 million in sales last year and plans to open stores at a rate of 30 to 40 annually until it reaches a minimum of 300 locations and its stated goal of becoming a billion-dollar company. references and loyalties are being tested this year as home improvement retailers slog through another summer of depressed activity in the housing market. Home Depot and Lowe’s have made moves to retrench a bit: Home Depot is closing 15 underperforming stores and reducing the number of new-store openings by more than half, while Lowe’s has postponed openings for 20 stores — primarily in Florida and California, where housing woes are particularly acute. Analysts suggest there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but hedge their bets about the timing. Still, a couple of non-Power Players are showing that the entire home improvement segment hasn’t fallen into disrepair. Menards is a Top 100 retailer that is employing a novel strategy in its site selection process by buying plenty of land around new 9 stores. The Eau Claire, Wis., P Company Home Depot Lowe’s 2007 Revenues (000) $77,394,000 48,283,000 ComparableStore Sales -6.7% -5.1 Sales per Store $34,623,545 31,660,983 25 movies account for half the revenues. Both QVC and IACI/HSN have e-commerce operations, but their main selling venue remains television. But just as online retailing has made a dent in the sales of bricksand-mortar merchants, so has it impacted TV-reliant home shopping retailers. A recent Nielsen survey indicated that, worldwide, 85 percent of people with Internet access have used it to shop. HSN.com has been transformed into a dynamic standalone storefront Company 2007 Revenues with more than 40,000 products. The site provides shoppers (000) with an array of unique features, including When-To-Watch eAmazon.com $14,835,000 mail reminders, an interactive Program Guide and Weekly QVC 7,397,000 Product Reviews. At QVC.com, enhancements included a wish IACI Retail 3,180,771 list, the ability to print pre-paid return labels and improved auto-delivery management. WWW.STORES.ORG STORES JULY 2008 T17 http://HSN.com http://Amazon.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG

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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