Friday, August 31, 2012

Point of Sale Reports: Preparing for the Holiday Season

By: Jamie L. Novick of Next Step Retail Solutions  

Traditionally retail is seasonal, Spring begins in January, Summer in April, Fall in July and the Holiday season in October. Accordingly, receipts are planned and floors are set.  Yet, when we look at the numbers from each season, retailers are finding a larger and larger percentage of yearly sales are done in Q4 / Holiday.
In some cases more than half of a total year’s revenue will come from the last three months of the year.  In today’s marketplace Q4 can start as early as August. How you prepare for this make or break Q4 / holiday season as a retailer in today’s economy is more important than ever. Not only do you have to be priced right and merchandised beautifully, but the buying decisions you made 6-9 months ago need to count! You have a very limited amount time to sell product and you need to move it fast!

So, how do you prepare? Preparation starts in the reports. For the apparel and accessory retail clients we consult we impress upon them how imperative it is that they are aware of what reports are available from your POS systems. Clients need to know how their product, merchandising, pricing and overall store demographics are impacting sales. By running key POS reports that capture daily, weekly, monthly sales and the inventory by department, style, size and color levels you will be able to better manage your inventory and positively impact your current and future sales.

From a visual merchandising perspective, retailers often focus on making the new receipts the biggest focus. This is important but keep in mind you should also run reports that show what styles are doing the majority of your business and what styles are taking up most of your OTB (Open to Buy) dollars.

The traffic driven into your store during the holiday is a key time to move through older goods. Customers do not know the difference, for example, between a basic black top that is 1 day or 100 day’s old. Especially if you make the old look new by re-pricing and with smart merchandising.
You need to have an awareness down to the SKU level of what you have on hand in units and dollars as you enter this holiday season. The time to start pulling reports and strategizing about how you are going to merchandise all of your product new and old is now! My clients are amazed when we look at the bottom 25 styles not the top 25 styles. Best seller analysis is important but so is inventory analysis.
For help with your POS report interpretation or to discuss your merchandising strategies as you enter your most lucrative season please feel free to contact me.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

August Retail Party Discussion - Rewind - Topic: Retail Design


On August 17th, 2012 a group of retail industry specialists gathered in an open Twitter discussion regarding retail design and visual merchandising.

Attendees:
King Retail Solutions / Twitter
One Step Retail Solutions / Twitter
APG Cash Drawer / Twitter
Smart Retail / Twitter
Retail Tim / Twitter
Retail Net Group / Twitter 
Sean Deale / Twitter.

Here are some of the helpful tips presented by the attendees -

What about trends and remodels?
- An interesting concept was to implement digital signage, making it much easier to change up the look and feel without frequently.
- Avoid being too "on trend" requiring frequent redesigns unless you are financially able to commit. Trends can later date your store.

Consumer experience, what is the consumer looking for?
- King Retail Solutions and Retail Tim recommend research, including a good old fashioned focus group to really hone in on what your customers are looking for in terms of a retail experience.
- It is noted that it is important to know what the customer is looking for and how they will want to interact with the retailer.
- Do a walk through of competitors stores. Consider ways to differentiate yourself from the competition.

How to avoid a brand disconnect?
- Make sure your brand (logo, mantra, voice, aesthetic) shines through in your store design, no disconnect.
- Consider your online or magazine branding and style, ensure each point a customer will come into contact with you will be cohesive. Including: color, emotion, style and target public.

About store layout?
- Avoid cluttering the walk ways and do not put anything that could be perceived as an obstacle in the entry way.
- Facing items outward in a welcoming way towards the entrance.
- Place items that go well together is recommended.
- Creating an experience within your store can be tricky but will keep your customers in store and they may purchase more than what they initially intended on buying.

General design tips: - Colors create varied emotions and should be researched.
- Ensure you have proper lighting, lighting can set a mood and should be considered a part of the experience.
- Consider music to create the illusion of movement and motion for the quiet hours of the day. Choose a mix appropriate to your target customers.

How does mobile tie in with retail design?
- APG Cash Drawer recommends retailers take advantage of the new mobile technologies & give the end users more sufficient ways to close a sale. Thus enhancing the customers experience by creating a seamless experience.
- Many retailers are looking for a way to differential themselves from the crowd and with a variety of ways mobile can be implemented, it gives a retailer the freedom to express their brand and vision.
- Point of sale is where you want your customers to land, making your point of sale mobile removes a previous hurdle the customer had to overcome. Stationary POS can cause a customer to be dissuaded by lines or second guessing their immediate impulse on their way to checkout.



Our next Retail Twitter Party will be held on September 20th, 2012 at 11am PST discussing "Preparing for the holidays".
Sign in with your Twitter account at TWebEvent or follow the #retailparty from your Twitter account.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Retail: What Happens if the Cloud Crashes?

What is the Cloud
While a retailer has information on their POS system, getting your various computers to talk to one another (store to store, station to station) and in real time is made possible by Cloud POS, also known as web-based POS.

Instead of your data saving to a server in the back office or to the machine you are working on, the data gets pushed up through a network connection (usually the internet) to “the cloud”. “Cloud” refers to the very large servers that are typically located in strategic locations with their own security.

If you are going to be running multiple stores you will need to be giving and receiving information seamlessly and in real time, cloud POS makes this possible. Other key reasons for considering the cloud is the recently popular concept of “agility”, you can go anywhere and check in on how things are going and your individual stores will avoid costly errors by having current data. Cloud also brings in an increased level of safety from data loss, protecting you from in house system crashes or catastrophes where all of your records could be lost.


Having a cloud based system opens the door to several features and increased management capabilities; overall it is a fantastic technological advancement.

If They Can Do It, So Can We
Like many new advancements, inexpensive versions crop up. A consistent rash of new POS solutions cross my path, many are charging less than you spend on your cable bill for a monthly subscription per station. The systems are typically pared down versions of a complete POS, simple features and sleek interfaces. The full system is all set up so that both the retailer and the software provider can avoid additional costs. The retailer gets the rights to the software and with a mobile device in hand you can get your retail store rolling. Note, most cloud based POS solutions are storing all of your data in the cloud.

What Happens if the Cloud Falls
Unfortunately, we have been getting a large quantity of calls from retailers who have been down for (at worst) days after their cloud based point of sale system crashes. Most recently a fairly major cloud based point of sale system has been down for over 3 days, with hundreds of retailers being forced to manually write receipts and manage their store blind. They would have no access to their data (inventory, reporting, records, etc), opening them up to massive theft and of course countless lost sales. This has left retailers dead in the water. Bouncing back from a system crash can be very difficult and could put the final nail in the coffin for dozens of those retailers. This is not an appealing prospect and is not a situation we wish on any retailer.

I recently saw one such company recommend having a system like Square as a backup in case their system crashes (because, you know, these things happen and there is nothing they could do about it) so that you can continue to do business (ring up charges, then manually keep track of everything else).
The Solution
Since the cloud is a solution to in-house system crashes it may beg the question, how can your information be truly secure? What happens if you are somehow disconnected from the cloud?
The answer is simple, a LAYERED approach. It is safe to say, that things can go wrong at any level and you cannot leave your central nervous system without a backup plan.

When Teamwork Retail launched their cloud based system several years before it was popularized, they not only created backup locations strategically across the country for all of your data in the cloud, but the data is ALSO stored on the hardware in store. They didn’t knock out the back office like many cloud based POS systems; they keep that in place and fully functioning so that you can ALWAYS access your data. The data is yours; you have it in house at all times and have a two pronged, surefire approach to data security.

So what happens if the cloud crashes?  Your Team(work) will protect you!

Click HERE for more information on Teamwork Retail.



One Step Retail Solutions is ranked as one of the top resellers and service providers for some of the most comprehensive and state of the art retail POS software solutions in the industry. For a free retail technology consultation, click HERE.
 

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Retail Hardware 101 as Featured in The Point of Sale News


One Step Retail Solutions recently compiled a comprehensive infographic entitled "the Complete POS Solution" which inspired Retail Hardware 101. This is intended for the on the ground retailer.

We hope that his resource can be of assistance to aspiring and existing retailers. If you have additional questions or need assistance in compiling a complete hardware and software bundle please contact us for a free consultation.



Monday, August 20, 2012

Tweeters Every Canadian Retailer Should Follow



After launching our increasingly popular "Twitter Accounts Every Retailer Should Follow" (targeted to US retailers), a bevy of Canadian resources were presented to us by long-time retail Tweeter, Retail.Ca the leading Canadian site dedicated to retail careers. Thank you Brenda for your years of bringing useful content to the land of Twitter and creating this very helpful list of retailer resources!

You may have already heard of several of these active Canadian retail tweeters, a few are newly bringing helpful content to the table.


General Retailing, Industry News and Tips
Doug @Retail Prophet
@retailprophet
Kevin Graff @GraffRetail
Jeff Doucette @jeffdoucette
Michael McLarney @Hardlinesnews (Home Improvement Industry)
Marina Strauss, Retailing Reporter with The Globe @MarinaStrauss
Dave Rodgerson @drodgerson (Retail Futurist)
David Ian Gray - @davidiangray


Retail Technology / Technology
Mahir Basheer - @mahirhb - Retail Reporting and Analytics
One Step Retail Solutions - @OneStepRetail


Hiring / Personnel
Headhuntress - @JRossRrecruiter
Retail.ca - @Retailca
Talent Egg - @talentegg.ca
Matt Devine - @mattkdevine


Consultants / Training
The Coaching Suite - @thecoachingsuiteCanada
Cricket Vanthier - @reallycricket (USA)
Carol Spieckerman - @retailxpert (USA)
Retail Geek - @retailgeek (USA)


Associations
Retail Council - @retailcouncil


Promotion and Marketing
Dx3 Canada - @dx3canada
Retail Leverage - @RetailLeverage
Daniel Indreica – @danielus90
BrandSpank - @brandspankshop
Barcode Andrew - @barcodeAndrew


Retail Real Estate
Michael@Michael_MBA (US)

Friday, August 17, 2012

One Step Retail Solutions Attends 2012 Tea Collection


Tea Collection is a designer of mostly children’s apparel (some adult), located in the design district of San Francisco. Twice a year, they invite the retailers that carry their line to come to SF to see their newest line and participate in educational workshops that help them be great retailers.
We were honored to be invited to represent retail technology in a series of workshops held at the fabulous California College of the Arts, where students in Fashion Design volunteer as interns for this event. Their retailers had been asking for more information on Point of Sale systems and Tea decided we were the best provider to invite since we represent so many systems, unlike other providers who only represent one system, or at the most, two. Donna Wesley Rogers, represented One Step Retail Solutions and here are her comments.



"Most of the retailers attending were single store owners, but all were very experienced retailers, seriously interested in the subject of retail technology. We broke into small groups of about 15 people each so there was opportunity for a lot of Q&A and discussion amongst the retailers themselves. The sharing of technology experiences was very valuable for everyone. I did two presentations, discussing POS in general and what they should be using it for….not just having a glorified and expensive cash register. Then I went over six POS products, the strengths and weaknesses of each with comparisons to each other.'


"The retailers generally seemed most interested in cloud solutions and in enhanced reporting. They were a lively group, very engaged in the subject.'

"My word of advice to retailers: Get trained on your retail technology and use every bit of it….squeeze out all the return you can get on such a major investment. It’s so exciting and fun to learn all the great things you can do!"

Tea was founded in 2002 in San Francisco, starting out with pima cotton baby sweaters and inspired by classic Asian styles and colors. The goal being to bring a fusion of worldwide cultures and design to children's fashion and expanding into women's wear in 2010. Each season they travel to international destinations and design a collection based on their inspiring experiences.
The name "Tea Collection" is rooted in the same concept of culture since tea is enjoyed throughout every corner of the globe.

Donna Wesley Rogers, Director of PR and Marketing
attended Tea Collection 2012



Complimentary Retail Metrics Webinar Series

RETAIL METRICS Webinars
Complimentary for All Retailers
September 25th - October 30th

We would like to invite you to our upcoming series of webinars covering retail metrics. All retailers are invited to these complementary webinars hosted by One Step Retail Solutions featuring award winning retail consultant, Dan Jablons of Retail Smart Guys.



About Dan Jablons: Dan Jablons
worked in retail while attending the Ohio State University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Production. He has worked with retailers such as Walmart, Target, JC Penney, American Apparel, Betsey Johnson, Donna Karan, Jimmy Choo, Charles David, Diesel, Oakley, Tumi, Hollywood Bowl, and many others. Dan was the VP Operations for One Step Retail Solutions for over 10 years and continues to maintain a close relationship with the company.

In addition to his vast retail background, Dan also has a background in improvisational theatre. He has performed with comedy troupes all across the USA, and recently appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Dan combines his extensive knowledge of retail with his comedy skills to become one of the industry's most popular speakers.


About One Step Retail Solutions: One Step Retail Solutions is ranked as one of the top resellers and service providers for some of the most comprehensive and state of the art retail POS software solutions in the industry. Taking a consultative approach to retail technology and helping thousands of retailers nationwide achieve their dreams.


Sept 25, Tuesday 11:00am - 12:00pm - Retail Metrics: An Introduction to KPIs REGISTER
In a lively discussion introducing the Key Performance Indicators that every Retailer should use to manage their store, Dan Jablons will enlighten you on the basics of metrics for your store and how to use these statistics to sharpen your buying and improve your stores performance.

Oct 2, Tuesday 11:00am - 12:00pm - Retail Metrics: Days of Supply and Inventory Turn REGISTER
Whether you have a seasonal business or year-round sales, you need to know your days of supply and how to use these to match lead times, without losing sales. Also find out how to increase your Turn as much as possible without having to take markdowns, resulting in more profits.

Oct 9, Tuesday 11:00am - 12:00pm – Retail Metrics: Stock to Sales Ratio REGISTER
Stock to Sales Ratio is a key statistic for measuring whether or not you are overstocked. Further, learn how to use the stock to sales ratio to plan purchases and ensure that you have the precisely correct inventories each month to match your sales forecasts.

Oct 16, Tuesday 11:00am - 12:00pm – Retail Metrics: Sell Through Percentage REGISTER
Sell Through Percentage is especially important for seasonal merchandise, since the goal is to be out of stock of seasonal merchandise by the end of the season. But most inventory has a “season” and every retailer can benefit from understanding this metric.

Oct 23, Tuesday 11:00am - 12:00pm – Retail Metrics: Gross Margin Return on Investment REGISTER
Simply, for every dollar invested, how many dollars did you get back? Was it worth the investment to make that profit? Explore the mysteries of GMROI and discover how this can be the most important metric for a retailer. Find out how to figure the GMROI on your entire inventory or on just one single item.

Oct 30, Tuesday 11:00am - 12:00pm – Retail Metrics: KPIs, Putting It All Together REGISTER
All of this information comes down to one simple question: do I have the right inventory in the right place at the right time? If you don’t know, the KPI’s will tell you just that. But how do you use them all together? And can they predict the future as well as report the past?

To interact on Twitter follow #retailmetrics or log into our discussion board by going to our tWebEvents page.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Teamwork Retail Representative Featured on The Retail Life Blog

Meet Terra Russo, Teamwork Retail representative and retailer to the core. Her history in retail and technology chops will bring a whole new spin to your quest for the perfect point of sale.

Check out this fun interview that covers everything from retailer tips, suggested resources and how a buyer got into retail technology.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Your Social Media Activities vs Miley Cyrus' Hair

It was recently brought to my attention that Miley Cyrus' bun (her HAIR) has more followers than a vast majority of retailers out there. I laughed for a few minutes and then there was a somber silence to mourn all of the lost sales and profits for small to medium sized retailers.

Social media still gets flack for being a "fad" or "pointless" while well over 25,000 people are getting updates from a fictitious, inanimate object and are INTERESTED and ENGAGED. There are countless companies, brands and celebrities that lept to being a household name through social media (Justin Bieber included).

Social Media will evolve, yes but the odds of it just "poof" disappearing are slim to none:
  • Over 800 million people have Facebook accounts. (over 200 million of those users are over 35) 
  •  77% of consumers say that they interact with brands through social media. 
  • 56% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand after seeing a post on social media. 
  • The average consumer spends 3 hours a day on social media sites (yowza). 
  • There are over 3.5 BILLION articles, images and brands that get shared each week on Facebook alone. 
  • There are over 100 million active Twitter users. 
  • Many consumers are adding a new step to their decision making process "validate my decision" which involves seeing what others are saying about you and checking to see if your company has a presence online (social media being one of the key resources for this). 
  • Interesting content is 92% more likely to get shared (see Beyonce's record breaking pregnancy announcement Tweet rate of over 8 thousand Tweets a second). 
  • 77% of companies say that they have acquired a customer through Facebook. 
  • Pinterest was launched in early 2010 and has a current estimated value of over 1.5 billion dollars, this giant really picked up steam in 2012 and is now driving in more traffic than all other social media sites combined for several major retail chains. 
  • Interestingly, the odds of someone shopping or dining OUT is more likely amongst those that are actively using social media.


Social media is not a fad, it is a mighty tool to reach out to your current and future buyers/fans and keep them coming back for more.

Here is a choice tip for achieving results with social media, if you do not want to run the accounts or update them, assign those functions to an upbeat personable member of your team. Social media is not an activity that should be taken on begrudgingly and does take some time to get rolling.

Engage, interact, be fun, have fun, push the envelope and most of all, realize that this is the wild west of social media and if you play your cards right, your brand/name/product can also become a household name.

If Miley Cyrus' hair can do it, so can you! (Sorry, it's not every day that you can say something that rediculous).

Brought to you by : Amy Hanson, resident retailing blogger for One Step Retail Solutions
One Step Retail Solutions Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Linkedin.




Saturday, August 11, 2012

[Client Feature] Party Mart Has a Serious POS System

When North Westerners are looking to plan the perfect party or event, they go to Party Mart.
When Party Mart is looking for a POS system to support a traffic volume and a product count that would make a run-of-the-mill system glitch like Hal in "2001: A Space Odyssey", they come to One Step Retail Solutions for a state of the art system that will keep them running smoothly day in and day out.









Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Twitter Accounts Retailers Should Be Following

Retail Tweeters


General Retailing, Industry News and Tips
Retail Week
@RetailWeek
Retail Wire @RetailWire
Hanover Research @hanover4bix
Retail Minded @RetailMinded
Retail Online Magazine @RetailOnlineMag
One Step Retail Solutions @OneStepRetail
Future of Retail Alliance @joinFORA
NY Times Retail Reporter @stephcliff

Retail Technology / Technology
Point of Sale News @PointOfSaleNews
One Step Retail Solutions @OneStepRetail
Tech Crunch @TechCrunch
Retail Digital
@RetailDigital

Hiring / Personnel
The Retail Life @theRetailLife
Find Hire @FindHire
Work in Retail @WorkinRetail
NRF Retail Careers @Retail_Careers

Consultants / Training
Evan Carmichael @EvanCarmichael
Retail Smart Guys @danjab
Retail Touch Points @RTouchPoints
Retail Concepts @RetailConcepts
The Retail Doctor @theRetailDoctor
Retail Mavens
@RetailMavens

Associations
NRF News - National Retail Federation @NRFnews
RSPA @RSPA
Board Retail Association @BoardRetailers
Florida Retail Association @FloridaRetail
Michigan Retail Association @MichRetail

Visual Merchandising and Design
Retail Details @retail_details
King Retail Solutions @KingRetail
DDI Online @DDItweets
Store Signs @StoreSigns

Promotion and Marketing
Snap Retail @SnapRetail
Brand Spank @BrandSpankShop
Plastic Resource @PlasticResource
Postcard Mania @PostcardMania

Retail Real Estate
Retail Traffic @RetailTraffic
CBRE @CBRE

Style and Fashion
Racked National @Racked
Lifestyle Lemonaid @LifeStyleLemonaid
Women's Wear Daily @WomensWearDaily
Refinery29 @refinery29


This list was compiled after an exhaustive seach of active Twitter accounts posting useful content for retailers in the US.
 
 
 
Brought to you by: One Step Retail Solutions
One Step Retail is ranked as one of the top resellers and service providers for some of the most comprehensive and state of the art retail POS software solutions in the industry. For a free retail technology consultation, click
HERE.





Monday, August 6, 2012

Lightspeed for iPad Wins RetailNOW 2012's Annual Innovative Solution Award



Lightspeed, a top software system for retailers has won the 2012 Innovation Award in the Software Application category. "The Innovative Solutions Awards will be given to those nominated companies that have created a dynamic solution in their respective market" - RSPA

"LightSpeed for iPad is retail’s first interactive point-of-sale platform that gives stores a personalized selling tool that scans inventory, details products not shown on the selling floor, and eliminates long checkout lines. Its 'Show & Tell' feature enables sales associates to turn their iPad towards the customer to share expanded product details and up to five zoomed images on a stylish curtained backdrop. Further, it provides the ability to easily invoice the product with a single tap. Retailers can process credit card payments anywhere the iPad takes them, accept signatures on-screen, and email or wirelessly print receipts."

We are proud to be able to bring this solution to retailers nationwide. Contact us for a free consultation and to find out more about this impressive iPad POS system.




Sunday, August 5, 2012

The History of "Boutique"


Being a big fan of definitions and the history behind words, I recently pondered the exact definition and qualifications to be deemed a "boutique store".

bou·tique

[boo-teek]  noun
1. a small shop or a small specialty department within a larger store, especially one that sells fashionable clothes and accessories or a special selection of other merchandise.
2. any small, exclusive business offering customized service: Our advertising is handled by a new Madison Avenue boutique.
3. Informal . a small business, department, etc., specializing in one aspect of a larger industry: one of Wall Street's leading research boutiques.
Origin and history - boutique "fashion shop," 1953, earlier "small shop of any sort" (1767), from Fr. boutique. French for "shop".

More on it's history and origin Wikipedia-
The term entered into everyday English use in the late 1960s when, for a brief period, London was the centre of the fashion trade. Carnaby Street and the Kings Road were the focus of much media attention as home to the most fashionable boutiques of the era. Now the East of London has been regenerated and more Boutiques pop up in fashionable areas, such as Tower Bridge Road.

In late 1990s some European retail traders developed the idea of tailoring a shop towards a lifestyle theme, in the form of "concept stores", which specialised in cross-selling without using separate departments. One of the first concept stores was 10 Corso Como in Milan, Italy followed by Colette in Paris and Quartier 206 in Berlin. Several well-known American chains such as Urban OutfittersD-A-S-H, and The Gap, Australian chain Billabong and, though less common, Lord & Taylor adapted to the concept store trend after 2000.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

New York vs Los Angeles - Different Retail Environments

Google Maps Search for "Retail Stores"

I was very surprised on my recent trip to New York City to observe how rarely I came across chain stores (except for of course in the very occasional "mall" and the high end chain stores around 5th Ave). The city is not set up for strip malls (a west coast staple) and I noted only one (ONE?!) Gap during my week long trip and didn't spy a single supermarket.

This observation paired with the knowledge that NYC is home of many flagships; is generally known as one of the top shopping cities in the US and is the most densely populated city in the US got me thinking - is this a independent retailing mecca or are chain stores just well hidden?! In chatting with a few locals it was a point of pride that there were majorly independent retail locations and grocery stores, many are greatly concerned that retail giants will continue to box out mom and pop shops.

As the top vacation destination for Americans and one of the top vacation destinations for explorers across the globe an interesting point is - tourist shopping. Tourist shopping as opposed to local shopping: to an American, New York symbolizes something very different from the international travelers. To an international traveler NYC=USA, items purchased from chain stores (many, including Express have been popping up at Time Square) are going to become a souvenir to the international traveler.

I decided to do a little bit of research to see how the actual numbers came out. New York City (the 5 boroughs) boasts a total of 3 Walmarts for their 8.2 million population vs 20 Walmarts for the greater Los Angeles' 9.9 million inhabitants. To put that into perspective, 2.2 million people live in Portland and they have 14 Walmarts. Regarding Gap, there were comparatively as many Gap stores per capita as in Los Angeles.

Target has 4 locations in the 5 boroughs of New York vs over 50 in Los Angeles County. When Target finally opened a store in Manhattan (Bronx) it was an exciting addition to the island and many locals remembered it clearly.
For a resident of NY the small market on the corner of the street that has all of the basic staples they may need (soaps, milk, Bandaids) and will charge more than Target but be far more convenient. The battle of convenience and service will continue to play out with the local residents.
Additionally, the largest chains in NYC are Dunkin Donuts and Subway. Starbucks comes in #1 on the island but #5 out of all boroughs.

It appears that NY independent retailers are competing against large chain stores just as much as the rest of the US, it just appears that the fight against big box giants is also being fought by the local communities. Whereas resident West Coasters have long since become used to going to their local Target for bleach and Gap or Nordstrom for a new pair of jeans. Speaking of Nordstrom, there is one for all of the NYC boroughs vs 10 in the greater Los Angeles (3 are Nordstrom Rack).


Related articles:
NYC Got Malled 2004
Big Box in NYC 2011
10 Biggest Chain Stores in NYC