The American Retailer Can be a Bully
January 5, 2001
The American retailer can be a bully, according to one industry executive who asked to remain anonymous...
The field is getting narrower and narrower. There is a handful of biggies, companies with hundreds or thousands of stores and they're very dictatorial in what they want. If you do everything they want, they'll suck you dry.
The net result is that the manufacturers have to put more mark-up in the price. As they get bigger and stronger it's going to get worse.
Manufacturers have to cover themselves. We stick to our guns. We know how far we can go and what they can do. We put some additional mark-up in our product just to cover all these gimmicks that are coming up.
The firms that are efficient and know what they're doing and keep up with on time delivery will be ok. The chains demand service, quality, discounts for opening new stores. You have to pay for some of their markdowns. It depends on how much you want to do.
The field is getting narrower and narrower. There is a handful of biggies, companies with hundreds or thousands of stores and they're very dictatorial in what they want. If you do everything they want, they'll suck you dry.
The net result is that the manufacturers have to put more mark-up in the price. As they get bigger and stronger it's going to get worse.
Manufacturers have to cover themselves. We stick to our guns. We know how far we can go and what they can do. We put some additional mark-up in our product just to cover all these gimmicks that are coming up.
The firms that are efficient and know what they're doing and keep up with on time delivery will be ok. The chains demand service, quality, discounts for opening new stores. You have to pay for some of their markdowns. It depends on how much you want to do.
