Your every block or so drugstore chain, Walgreens, announced yesterday that their third quarter profits were down to 53 cents a share, from 58 cents a share in the same quarter last year. To combat the sting of consumers clinging so tightly to their pocketbooks, Walgreens is making some in-store changes, such as offering less "same or similar" product options for their customers. The idea is that their customers will be able to make quicker purchase decisions and will have the added benefit of additional different products to purchase, which can be stocked on the freed up shelf space.
Yours truly (like third-person talking "Jimmy" from the classic Seinfeld episode) has noticed a similar trend going on with office supply stores, when trying to buy such basic staples as ballpoint pens. When asking a clerk of an unnamed major office supply store why one of the major pen suppliers was not being carried anymore, he responded by saying that their purchasing for those products had been changed to a "bidding type system". I can only assume that the lowest price/highest margin products were being ok'd for purchase by their buyers and were eventually creeping their way to store shelves.
This type of merchandising makes consumers make bad purchase decisions (and can lead to more returns and discontinued patronage) by having them buy something that doesn't fit their needs, is not a good perceived value or is purchased solely due to time constraints. Consumers may be willing to buy something that is not to their best liking one time, but eventually they will frequent and migrate to the stores that have more/better purchase options.
Jimmy doesn't like less product options when shopping... In fact, Jimmy and less product options "kind of clash"....
