Mallory Schlossberg
Feb. 28, 2016, 9:01 PM
Department stores and specialty retailers have faced declining sales recently, with brands from Macy’s to Gap closing stores.
Many people are pinning the apparel industry’s recent struggles on unseasonably warm weather, which could discourage the purchase of winter clothing.
But there might be another problem that few people are addressing: consumer boredom.
“Today’s retailers face a tsunami of problems but none, in my opinion is more deadly than the pandemic of sheer consumer boredom that shoppers are being subjected to,” retail expert Doug Stephens writes on his blog, The Retail Prophet. “Most retail is just painfully boring. In fact, the majority of store chains, malls and shopping centers have become beacons of boredom, monuments to mediocrity and havens of ho hum.”
Stephens gives an example of a category buyer at Macy’s who is guided by the obvious: sales. If a product won’t sell in droves, then it’s not worth putting it on the shelves, he says.
“And it is for that one single reason — anticipated square foot sales volume — that a plethora of unique, fun, fashionable and fascinating products will likely never see the light of day on the sales floor,” he writes. “Now, repeat the Macy’s buyer mandate across the thousands and thousands of retail buyers, each of whom follow the same essential rule, and soon every store in the mall begins to look the same. Every mall looks vaguely like the next. And voila…mass boredom!”
https://www.businessinsider.com/consumers-are-bored-with-shopping-2016-2
not boredom. slothfulness…
People are wearing pajamas to bed and then wearing them out to the store, school, etc…
Why buy more clothes when you can wear one item 24 hours a day.
I like the big “WE BUY GOLD” sign in the photo.
Ridgewood is looking more like Patterson every day.
Can’t wait for the big garage, big hospital and big housing to be built!
So this writer got an article published on the basis of what? Her thoughts. Not s single shred of evidence. All kinds of consumer date is freely available, but oh, no. Too boring. I’ll go with what I just thought up.
The reality is that consumer are buying clothes every bit as much as they have always done. The difference is only in where they buy them. Main streets all across America have basically been decimated by malls, and malls are now under threat from online shopping.
According to Ed Sullivan we need A FRAME SIGNS on the sidewalk in the CBD to advertise the stores specials and restaurants menu .
4:04, I thought the same thing. What next? Last chance, going out of business signs 365 days a year?
Ed is just another one of the miscreants in the ilk that is Paul, Pooch, The Carpetbagger and Gwennee. He no longer matters.
he’s simply ignorable at this point.
6:16 and 4:04. Scary perception becomes reality slide down happens quickly. Town will be shot after next recession
The days are long gone when landlords in Ridgewood could be choosy about the types of businesses that were lining-up to get in. These days, they take anyone who’s willing to give it a shot in this here-today-gone-tomorrow life cycle of main street retailing. You can’t blame them. It’s either that or an empty store.
4:04:
The big “We Buy Gold” sign has been in the coin shop window for years…maybe the big garage will bring in more shoppers and dinners, which will attract more high end shops and restaurants, which will attract more shoppers and dinners, and create a glorious, self fulfilling circle of prosperity. Nah, let’s just “preserve the charm” of Ridgewood the way it is before the nasty garage and oversized hospital get built.
We could build a garage the size of Met Life stadium. It wouldn’t add one more shopper or diner to Ridgewood.
I guess it’s about time for the post landslide sour grapes to make an appearance.
We paid for merchants on side streets poles sign guides already.
6:29- Right on the money.
6:34
2/3rds of the vote, with 1/3 voter turn out does not a “landslide” make.
makes a HUGE landslide and total rejection of the council majority !!
Make Ridgewood Grate again! Seriously. Pre shredded cheese is awful.
james..Hit a nerve or two out there in the packing up for next the next gig team?.
They gloated on what they saw as the great unwashed for years….civility classes…time limits on citizens concerns…back dealing financial trickery..referendums of bad faith….seeYa
9:11 a smaller turnout was good enough for a non-biding referendum.
Retail in any downtown area is a pipe dream. Single stores and even malls are dying out nationwide. The only malls doing well are ultra high end luxury malls and factory outlets.
All dowtowns will eventually become a combination of some restaurants and bank branches. This is the reality even in Manhattan! It takes some special kind of delusion to think that Ridgewood can so what Manhattan cannot!
Also, it is increasingly becoming common for people to take an Uber when going out for dinner or drinks. This way, there is no concern about drinking or a designated driver. That will make driving hence a garage even more redundant.
For those in Ridgewood – give it a try. It costs $5-6 from most places in Ridgewood to downtown in an Uber and the cars are mostly 5 minutes away.
9:11 – You should look into a remedial math course. A 34% margin of victory (for each of 3 candidates) with a voter turnout 67% above the historical trend is as loud a statement as any electorate can make. This is way beyond a landslide. It’s a mandate to scale back every development initiative currently under consideration – including the garage and the 35/units per acre already voted on. The people have spoken and what they have said is not subject to any mathematical or other interpretation.
66% of the vote is a landslide
They won 9:11 get over it. Its doesn’t matter how many votes Your team lost
Good by to the Carpet Bagger, to Big Al the Developers Friend and The Valley Girl. Have a nice life You are irrelevant snd so are your Developers friend and Chamber friends.
Blame Yoga pants tribes
Self driving cars + uber will make owning a car obsolete.