Text 4014, 55 rader
Skriven 2010-11-21 23:25:31 av Nancy Backus (1:261/1381.0)
   Kommentar till text 3958 av Michael Loo (1:18/200.0)
Ärende: Re: health, economic 769
================================
-=> Quoting Michael Loo to Nancy Backus on 19 Nov 10  07:20:08 <=-

 ML> YK Jim, with his finger on the pulse of the economy, sees
 ML> a return to life in the upscale sectors. Whether this will
 ML> trickle down in the Reaganomics sense (Stockman admitted
 ML> later on that he knew all along that this theory was bogus)
 ML> one can't predict.

I'm still a bit skeptical of that...  It would take the upscale sectors
starting to increase salaries of those in the lower levels.. and
rehiring, etc...

 NB>> they also/still have the normal run of quality foods at reasonable
 NB>> prices.  So I guess that in some ways they do still cater to most of
 NB>> the different classes of grocery shoppers...

 ML> It's good to have the comprehensive selection if the volume
 ML> is sufficient; the well-off will always want their oysters
 ML> and oyster mushrooms, and the less well-off will always
 ML> aspire to them and feel good that they're to be had for a
 ML> splurge. But in an area where there's less customer base
 ML> in the upper tier - due not only to local living standards
 ML> but also to low volume - it might not make so much sense.

The most upscale items just wouldn't be offered, I suspect.  They do
have a certain amount of that already... a few stores where certain
items just aren't available whether food or kitchen accessaries...

 ML> But having positioned itself as offering the top end
 ML> selections as well as the normal ones, I see that my
 ML> previous suggestion, that Wegmans aim for the vast impoverished
 ML> middle, might be brand-damaging. Surely the analysts for the
 ML> company have thought all this out down to the penny. One
 ML> possibility might be to offer a pared-down selection under
 ML> a different brand name. I don't see this so much now here,
 ML> it's been tried in the past, and in Europe it's still common.

To some extent they do do some of that.  They have their Wegmans brand
of canned (and other) goods... and then their Italian Classics version
of some of those same foods, for example tomatoes, pasta & pasta sauce.
The interesting factor is that in many ways they still are a local
family-owned and operated company, despite their expansion... their
analysts may not be quite so to-the-penny yet.  (Grand)father Robert,
who only died a few years ago, still had held to the idea that having
the range of stores (both in size of store and in the offerings there)
was a good idea, and that the modest shopper was to be catered to every
bit as much as the upscale one.  It's not totally lost yet, but his
granddaughters seem to not understand that concept as well as one would
have liked...

ttyl     neb 

... I am Smorgas of Borg. Prepare to be marinaded.
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