Argos is massive in the UK, they are everywhere, mostly because their prices for things like TV’s and other electronics tend to be significantly less than stores where you can browse.
I wonder if there is a cultural difference why their business model wouldn’t work in the US, we don’t have an equivalent here in Australia either.
The UK is significantly smaller than the US and Australia. I suspect that this has something to do with it.
??? fill me in as to how that changes the business model at all? Argos does websales and internet deliveries as well as having shopfronts where you can pick up yourself. I can’t see how the size of the country makes any difference to this business model, just place the stores in population centres!
Exapno Mapcase,
I don’t give a damn for what reason the immigrants come. It is immaterial to the discussion of economic realities. Manual labor jobs are relatively scarce and pay little in America. Many of them are occupied by immigrants who work for low wages and live in crowded housing. You want to disagree with that?
As for language skills and “literacy”, they are a problem for a stupid manager. A smart manager will find a way to computerize things enough to get even the illiterates do this work. I don’t know how literate are the McDonald’s employees who press the “fries” button on the register, but they do somehow manage to give me my fries for cheap.
I remember a place called HomeGrocer.com…I think it went defunct in 2001?
Yes. Define manual jobs. Explain whether McDonald’s workers are manual labor. Give me a figure for “many”.
The population density makes property values much higher. Argos can stack its warehouse-style goods twenty feet high (or more) and have its employees going round on ladders, but they can’t expect their customers to do that. That almost triples the amount of stuff they can store per square foot, and obviously that makes more of a profit difference where the property costs are higher.
It’s funny to see people on here talking about internet grocery shopping dying out, because exactly the opposite is the case in the UK. The main supermarkets all do it, and it’s very easy. They even have ingredients listed, which is useful for those with extra dietary requirements. When I do an online shop, I end up going for impulse buys just as much as when I shop in person, because the twofers and BOGOFs are just as visible as in the shop.
One of the main reasons, I suspect, that home delivery for groceries here is popular compared to the US is our much lower level of private car ownership. ([url=http://www.swivel.com/graphs/show/8820411]478 for the US vs. 373 for the UK - and TBH I’m surprised the difference isn’t bigger. Perhaps it’s because there are quite a few housholds that have two cars and quite a few that have no cars at all, rather than the number being evenly distributed). And our lower car ownership is related to our size and population density; you’re much less likely to buy a car if your work is within walking distance, and parking spaces cost a lot more too.
In terms of retail, the pre order and pick up works from a cost cutting point, to small extant, but it does cut seriously into profits. In most supermarkets, and many big block retailers, impulse buys make up sometimes as much as 60% of a customer’s visit. By allowing cutomers to eliminate the shopping process, much of the impulse buy items will not be selected.Impulse items are generally the highest profit margin items in store, and are placed very carefully to maximise their effectivness as impulse items.
KMart/Sears has a pilot store out now called MyGofer which does the online grocery n’ more shopping hwere you pick it up. The inside of the storefront itself has a few glass cases with some electronics in them, jewelry, a few home goods, etc. Not quite at the Service Merchandise level of display goods but a handful of them.
I have no idea how the store is doing. The one near us never looks busy but, if people are only staying long enough to load their cars, I don’t know how busy it’s ever going to look.
I know that gas stations are hurting…people are paying at the pump with debit and credit cards, and no longer going inside for most visits. Not going inside means not picking up a soda and candy bar…which means a lot of lost profit.
AIUI, the unique premise at warehouse stores is that you buy your products in a larger size than is typically available at a supermarket/grocery store. The “bulk” purchase can net you a lower per unit cost.
I do find their fresh meat prices to be kind of steep, though, myself. And for some reason they don’t consider twenty gallons of gasoline to be a particularly large amount of liquid. I ought to be getting it for about a buck and a half a gallon!
Amazon seems to be getting into this market as well, though, and they even have discounts on some items if you set it up to auto-ship every so many months. We’ve ordered cases of toilet paper, paper towels, and a couple of grocery items this way.
Ever been to a convenience or liquor store in a really, really bad neighborhood like in NYC or Baltimore?
They have a bulletproof partition and you ask for what you want, put your money in a slot, and they hand you the goods through a little turnstile thing.
No way to live, of course.
No way to live.