Great week

Awesome week for That Planning Guy — and its still only Wednesday.
Tuesday attending the Platt Retail Institute Analytics event was great.  SO many smart people in one event.  Learned a lot of fun things about signage and a different perception of what a ‘sign’ can do.  Then a visit to the Murtec conference, and some time in Restaurant Tech- great to hear innovations in other industries.
Dinner @ Olives Tuesday with a great crew, and dinner at Lago tonight with same crew, but expanded.  Met some smart restaurant people doing some really interesting IT/tech things.  Still curious who if anyone is doing any pricing analytics? Love to hear about that.

Rest of week could be even more telling as this journey continues. A few phone calls and a few email conversations still to have.

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
-Bob Dylan.

GAME ON
-That Planning Guy

 

Digital Retail Forum

Attending a great event today,  presented by Platt Retail Institute. 
A lot of talk about how consumers are being engaged,  and how to we do even better.  
How do we measure tears? Emotional responses to IoT,  interactions. 
More to follow.
-That Planning Guy,  on location!

ROI- Retail Orphan Initiative

I took part in the ROI event this year in NY at the NRF conference.  I can only say that I was truly proud to be a part of the great day for the great cause.

I ran across this in RIS this week: RIS ROI Article

All I can say is THANK YOU to Darren Singer and Shopko Stores for showing what caring looks like.


As SVP of Retail Health & Wellness for Shopko Stores, my mission is to improve the quality of life for the patients and families in the communities we serve. Joining the Retail Orphan Initiative and my compatriots in our industry in this righteous cause of caring for orphans and foster kids is aligned to this goal. This cause resonates with me as a father and a citizen of the world. I hope it does you as well.

For this reason, I am issuing a donation challenge to like-minded retailers and partners to join RetailROI make a difference. I have donated $1,000 and challenge my friends and colleagues in the industry to donate as well. $1,000 to RetailROI this month means 50 special needs orphans can move from an impersonal orphanage into a loving foster home.

Whether you are participating in March Gladness or simply want to make a donation, I urge you to get involved. You can donate here. 100% of the money raised after payment fees goes to help these children. Will you please join me?

Together we can make a HUGE Difference.

Darren Singer
SVP Retail Health and Wellness
Shopko Stores

The Retail Orphan Initiative is grassroots charity made up of retailers, vendors and partners in the Retail/Hospitality Industry to leverage our skills, networks and companies to make a real difference for orphans and vulnerable children in the US and around the world. Inspired by the work of the late Paul Singer (CIO of Target and SuperValu), RetailROI has helped over 180,000 children with clean water, schools, computer labs and business training in the last seven years. Please get involved. More information is available atwww.retailroi.org.

 

Monday Morning

What does that conjure up in your head? Dread?  Oh God another Monday… What will be waiting for me today….
WRONG. A whole new set of data to tear into.  Truths to be uncovered.   Answers to be revealed,  and business to be driven. 
Anyone can fix a problem in hindsight.  What separates the winners from the losers is fixing it in real time, or near real time.

Identify. Analyze.  React.  Repeat.

I challenge all my Data Nerd brethren to BRING IT on a Monday. 

#analyticsdrivesbusiness

-THAT Planning Guy

Weekend Update

A few things to comment for the weekend:
This week, in the same day, I said something was as ‘goofy as a left-handed join’. (if you don’t get that reference you may be on the wrong site) I also commented “Yo Dre, I got something to say”
I quoted Ice Cube and a SQL command in the same day.   It was THAT kind of day.
In the coming weeks, I will have a lot of things to say about BI and big data ‘tools. ‘ What does data mining look like? SHOULD it be easy?
I am thinking about the update to Replenishment 101 (201?) Where to go from simple? Complex!
Also, want to explore the pre/in/post season analytics: Living in 3 seasons at the same time.
Last, soon I want to look into size/color analysis: Best practice? Timing? Whats the best time to dig in the dirt to find the answwer?

“Somewhere squatteth the toad of truth.  ”

Stay tuned!

-THAT Planning Guy

PS- for my #datanerds:
SELECT *
FROM tablename1 LEFT JOIN tablename2
ON columnname1 = columnname2
WHERE condition

Retail Bankruptcies

As Sports Authority knuckles under, I am taking pause to reflect on the 10 biggest Retail BK’s of all time, as written in this article from Fortune: Fortune Article Link

In order of assets at time of BK:
Circuit City, Linens & Things, General Atlantic & Pacific Tea (A&P),Radio Shack, Blockbuster, Borders, Sports Authority, Sbarro, Friedman’s, Brookstone.

Ruling out Sbarro, as it really is a restaurant chain and not a traditional retailer, and Friedman’s, which is a jewelry store that I am simply not familiar with,  what stands out to me is these were ALL very top or near-top of their category businesses at one point.

Circuit City was very similar to Best Buy in product and pricing. Linens&Things was sort of a small version of Bed Bath and Beyond (less Beyond, more Bed)
A&P was not just a large grocer: They had 16,000 stores in 1930– and were the largest retailer in the WORLD. (and 150+year history)
Radio Shack? Was a premier player in the PC market at the beginning- remember the TRS-80? Then you are old also. Founded in 1921, so managed to survive a few wars the Depression, and every other world-changing event for nearly a century.
Blockbuster didn’t invent the movie rental concept- but they certainly made it simple, accessible, and EVERYWHERE.
Borders? Put it next to a B&N and heck if I knew which was which.
Brookstone was the store that was FUN in the mall!

So what did these stores fail in while their rivals are still alive? Obviously a lot of reasons but the one that struck me as likely (in hindsight) was failing to adapt-or-die.
If Blockbuster had opened an online delivery, maybe they’d be Netflix.
If Radio Shack and Circuit City had figured out whatever it was that made Best Buy work, and opened enough online presence to compete with Amazon? Maybe a different story.
Radio Shack alone could have been a MONSTER- Introducing a home PC in 1977, for $600?  About the same time as that other computer maker startup, and that one turned out OK in the end.

What did B&N do better than Borders? I don’t know, but clearly neither did Borders.  I think they were both late to the online book situation, but obviously B&N survived. Adapted.

And A&P? Well that’s the scariest of all. How do you completely own a market and lose the entire company in a few decades?  Obviously competition changed.  The landscape changed.  Bad decisions must have been made.  But to have that kind of economy of scale and lose it is just a terrifying prospect for a lot of today’s market leaders.

If you don’t remember what got you there, it is hard to stay there, I think. 16,000 stores,  85 years ago.  That’s over 4000 more than Walmart has today. In 30 years, will a change in landscape not only over-through Walmart, but literally end them? Hard to fathom… but I bet A&P management in 1930 felt the same invincibility.

So today, lets all say a retail prayer for the staff of Sports Authority who likely lost a lot of jobs, and hope they can come through the other side leaner, smarter, stronger, and better able to compete. We are all retail brothers.
Note: Brookstone emerged from BK in 2014 and has continued operations, which is a joy for anyone who is at the mall and wants a chair massage!
Plan, execute, and analyze. Repeat.  And never stop. Never.

-That Planning Guy

Great Service

What makes for great service?  Yesterday I ranted about Starbucks… Today I went to my usual Starbucks and did my usual mobile order.   When I arrived,  one of the ladies saw me,  walked over and handed me my coffee  (with a green stopper thing !) “Here you go Steve”.  Super friendly smile and all.  And the coffee was exactly as I ordered,  of course. Mobile ordering is a godsend.
If that happened every day,  I would consider that GREAT service.
Is Good service,  delivered consistently,  the same as Great service?  I believe so. 
When we ‘deliver’ a report (flash for a manager,  sales by item for a stock host to replenish a floor,  WOS with orders needed already calculated to a buyer,  etc. ) and it comes as expected,  on time,  and accurate,  is that great service? 
If you miss a day,  or the service level drops for a day ( report server failure,  or no one made my coffee! )  the exception makes for bad service. 
So the reverse must be true. 
Be great,  but be great EVERY DAY.

-THAT Planning Guy

Replenishment Failure

My Starbucks ran out of stoppers this morning.  The stupid green stick that keeps my coffee from spilling all over my car.  Wow.
Is it hard to keep in stock of an item that you give away?
Demand= cups X ratio,  where cups = sales fcst X (% hot beverages to sales)
Ratio = average #stoppers given/cups used. 
If you know the sales fcst,  which I bet they do as they likely use for labor fcst  the rest is MATH:
Assume sales is 100, 000 for a month.   (no idea,  made that up)
70% are hot beverages with a price of 4.00. Half of people ask for stoppers.
Demand =((100000 X 70%) /4. 00) X  1/3.  =8750 stoppers needed.   Build in some safety stock to account for lead times.

Now I have to clean coffee off my car seat because someone failed at replenishment.
@starbucks – no charge for this demand forecast lesson. 

-THAT Planning Guy

Relationships

Building a relationship takes a huge amount of time and effort no matter what part of your life.  Girlfriend,  wife,  child,  friend are all difficult enough to manage. 
Work relationships are also a challenge.   NO,  not the Demi Moore “Disclosure” kind of issues… The productive work relationship,  especially from a Planner. 
In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,  you move up from Physiological  through love eventually to self actualization. 
Planning relationships go from:
KNOW : I know that person. Email relationship or phone call.
LIKE: yeah,  she always gives me reports and important data.
UNDERSTAND: I see your perspective and know why you think I need to markdown,  or order less. But I may not AGREE or execute.
TRUST: I believe you.  I will cut receipts and it won’t effect sales.

When you reach the level of trust,  the partnership can flourish.  Until then,  it’s generally one sided.  

How do we get there?  That’s another article entirely.
To be continued…

-THAT Planning Guy