Discount home shopping club

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The busy, time-strapped mom wants to spend more time with her family, then veg out and watch TV.

What she doesn't want is to spend more time shopping. Her tolerance for out-of-stocks, poorly trained store personnel, long lines, inaccurate prices and illogical shopping patterns is driving her out of the stores. In many cases now, she is beginning to shop more from catalogs, over the Internet and at stores that offer one-stop shopping opportunities, even if some prices are higher, just to save time.

"The ugly truth is people want to get in and get out as quickly as possible," said George Rosenbaum, president of Leo J. Shapiro & Associates, Chicago. "The choice of store is being increasingly influenced by how much time you have to spend there and how sure you are of walking out with what you want to buy. There is less forgiveness for shopping failure--that the store does not work well on a visit because you can't buy everything or almost everything, or that you're spending too much time doing it."

Who is so time-pressed that they either can't or won't go to the store, or find less and less pleasure in the pursuit? Basically, everyone, but especially working moms. And they are being forced to cut corners in order to meet their daily demands of work, family, home and self.

For these consumers, shopping has become a chore. Therefore, stores and services that attempt to save working moms time are the most convenient alternatives, according to scenario-building research on the future of retailing conducted by Saatchi & Saatchi. Myra Stark, director of knowledge management for Saatchi & Saatchi, noted that she recently completed a women's study that shows that both men and women are time-poor and that women especially "live in a stage of permanent hurry." This woman, said Stark, has given rise to the "improvisational woman," a phrase coined by Saatchi & Saatchi to describe a person who improvises throughout her day with convenience utmost in her mind.

The proviso: Convenience means different things to different people at different times in their lives.

According to a host of experts interviewed for this story, convenience is directly linked to time-savings in all aspects of a shopper's interaction in a store. "Convenience is everything that makes your trip to the store easier to allow you to get the heck out of there," observed Peter Monash, a retail industry consultant.

The key factors in time-savings include one-stop shopping, quick checkout, informed and helpful store associates, payment options such as debit cards, logical store layout with understandable signs, hassle-free returns, a strong in-stock position and product variety.

Other factors come into play, too, including technological advancements, store cleanliness, and compatible services such as shoe repair, one-hour photo, video rental and banking, more varied store hours, places to rest--from benches to in-store restaurants and snack bars--and store location.

"We've learned that customers have fallen out of love with the shopping process," said Susan Hayward, vp of Roper Reports, a division of Roper Starch Worldwide. Customers, she said, don't want to be sold on convenience, they just want the time they spend shopping to be easier and faster. When Roper polled consumers on stores they felt were the most convenient to shop, supermarkets ranked No. 1 because the environment is completely self-service, she said.

The Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA), got the same results in a report it released last September. According to responses from 1,003 shoppers 18 years and older who identified themselves as primary shoppers in their households, supermarkets ranked first in convenience, 49%; followed by convenience and discount stores, 18%; drugstores, 8%; and warehouse clubs, 1%.

Convenience factors vary by region of the country, age, income and market size, according to Roper research. For example, fast checkout is twice as important for consumers in the Midwest as it is for shoppers in the Northeast--perhaps because shoppers in the Northeast are more used to long lines and have low expectations of fast checkout--and a store's proximity to one's home is most important for shoppers in "D" or minor markets (56%), than it is for citizens in "C" markets, those with populations of 35,000 people or more (32%), and for shoppers in the Northeast (32%), probably because they don't have as many shopping options and have to travel further to get to preferred stores. A store's proximity to other shopping places ranked relatively high for "D" market shoppers (33%) and for working moms (28%). In large markets where shopping variety is plentiful--in "A," or top 25 markets, and "B," markets of 150,000 people or more--the issue is less critical.

"People are going to try to spend less time in stores and are going to try to find whatever vehicles they can to do so. One significant impact is on-line services that allow them to do regular shopping on line rather than in the store," observed Harvey Braun, co-chairman and national partner, Trade for Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group. This doesn't mean that they're taking the business out of the stores, but they are fulfilling the orders differently."

Why? Technological advancements are the ultimate convenience ingredient in today's stores, and consumers are embracing the advantages even if some of the applications are difficult to master. Technology is now directly linked to a customer's perceived convenience of the store in the form of scanning at checkout, automatic check writing (which is available at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club), electronic kiosks for information and special-order purposes, inventory control, even customer-directed ad programs.

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Even non-technological store attributes are increasing in importance. These include dual entrances at very large stores, outpost checkouts, clear directional and suggestive signing, uncluttered main aisles and wide shopping aisles for baby carriages and wheelchairs to pass through.

"Convenience is a very tangible way to react to store sameness," said Bill Chidley, senior vp, design at DesignForum, Dayton, Ohio. Retailers can help themselves by relying less on manufacturer-oriented package and shelf programs and more on their own creativity, sources noted.

Chidley suggested that retailers rethink single store entrances and sign programs. He also feels that store sign programs could take a lesson from the interstate highway program where directional and warning signs are made clearly visible understood.