StrategySteven

Some grocery stores carry tens of thousands of sku’s; at some point, errors happen. Errors abt customer safety are atop each retailer’s priority list. Behind that- errors that cause a whiff of deception; and could damage a banner’s reputation. This article mentions a $10k penalty for ‘Made In Canada’ signage errors; but the fine isn’t really the significant cost; the big ‘cost’ is a loss of customer trust, investor faith. https://www.cp24.com/local/toronto/2026/03/20/2-grocery-stores-in-ontario-fined-10k-each-for-mislabelling-some-food-items-as-canadian/

Marketers & retail management staff must reign in any impulse to slap on a not-quite-accurate sign, b/c small missteps cost brand equity. If misinformation here came from a specific (unnamed produce) supplier who inaccurately portrayed an item’s ‘Made In Canada’ status, their (behind-closed doors) ‘penalty’ cd be loss of a big customer. If the error traces to careless decisions by retail staff, new store training is evidently needed.

Usually the big loss of trust is with the customer facing entity; this article names Fortinos & Real Canadian Superstore, but what’s unusual is that a diligent reporter, Alex Arsenych, names names beyond these 2 customer-facing entities (banners), also mentioning ‘the L Word’- Loblaws, the banners’ owner/supplier.

Marketers Take Note: If you expect to be anonymous/safe from controversy that’s a direct/ indirect outcome of your decisions, beware! Diligent reporters can ‘out’ you. And what if Head Office Marketing doesn’t ‘technically’ commit a sin, just their agency partners’? No dice. You own your agencies work. In 2018, Aeroplan & CBC Radio hired a Montreal-based agency for attitude segmentation research; the firm (whose name rhymes with ‘Slop’) surveyed the public with Degree of Agreement statements smacking of bigotry, misogyny. Anyone recall the name of that research agency? Nope? But Aeroplan & CBC Radio brands wore the transgression for years online. Those brands forced to take a painful equity hit each time a new customer googled eg ‘Aeroplan Survey Offends’

-for those seeking schadenfreude, though CBC took it down, for now, you can still read about it here: https://news.mcmaster.ca/aeroplans-troublesome-purity-of-the-country-survey-is-nothing-new/

Excluding Grocery & Drugstores, more traditional multi-supplier retailers are hitting rough waters; many went Chapter 11 eg Sears, Woolco, Zellers, The Bay, Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor, Saks*, JCPenney*, Nordstrom Canada, Shopko, etc. We still have Holts, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Canadian Tire, Walmart, Kohl’s, and some (salvaged) Saks & JCPenney stores. They all feel pressure to adapt or suffer and that’s one reason many are experimenting w ‘Store in a Store‘ -a hybrid of traditional Multi-Supplier Store on one end, and a fully Brand-run Flagship outlet at the other end, of a control/selection continuum.

Examples: FedEx courier stores in Staples; Bouclair home decor & UPS package delivery in Walmart; Party City & Petco in Canadian Tire; Wine Rack in Metro, Sobeys & Zehrs.

Holt’s has long used ‘Store In a Store’ (SinS) for designer lines. The brands themselves influence selection, layout & merchandising of sub-footprint zones w/i the overall store. What varies in the different Hybrid experiments is the extent to which supplier brands influence/manage staff training, in store promotion & checkout. SinS formats can’t match the brand autonomy, ambience & selection control of an Own-Store eg a flagship outlet run by a brand like adidas, Nike, Boss, Cole Haan. But fashion brands are foremost interested in brand management & marketing, not in being a retailer, so I bet many brands quietly hope retail chains’ SinS efforts work out & win consumers (as long as the purchases are not by shoppers who would have bought the brand at the flagship store or on the brand’s website anyway!)

In a Careers class, I urge senior students seeking an ‘ideal fit’ employer to study the morale of a firm/dept (observe staff demeanour via a personal visit, check Glassdoor reviews, etc) & its Values (Tip: Values are reflected in what they DO, not what the SAY). But what if a student can’t get into the dept of their dreams, but an entry role in another dept- will it be worthwhile? Answer: it depends!

Many firms claim open mindedness about cross functional transfers, but Talk is Cheap; if a student does take a nontraditional/nonlinear Entry Role (eg in another dept/function), yes, they’ll be at a desired employer’s org, being paid by that employer… but there are other long term career considerations.

Is the dept Visible? Vital? Does the dept have ‘profile’? if a recruit performs well, is it even noticed?

“If a tree falls in the forest and no one is near…” (look it up)

-stories might illustrate the ‘tree falling in forest’ principle.

Story1: at a formal Marketing firm (so formal it didn’t even call it ‘Marketing’; it was ‘Brand’–oooh!!!!) a savvy Head of Purchasing desired an even more senior role. Nope. Cant promote you, said the set-in-its-way firm. Top roles were held just for ‘Brand’ staff. So a biz-proven grey haired 20 yr employee went back to a study carrel desk & began his career again, as a Brand Assistant.

Story2: A company shifted the ‘Customer Service Dept’ from 1 division to another, for decades. What caused that? Customer Service had a stable medium-sized headcount & a perception it’d be easy to manage (ie no front line experience or special qualifications to manage). As a bite-sized bolt-on dept (headcount addition), if an ambitious dept VP wanted a promotion to SVP, but their existing headcount wdn’t support an ‘SVP’ title/pay, the ambitious person ‘made a play’ for Customer Service & ‘bolted it on’ to win an SVP title. After this, they’d typically ignore Cust Service staff, incl high performers among them, their career desires, etc. Customer Service there was also occasionally dumped under a new senior manager to oversee, with NO extra pay or title enhancement involved. This ‘reporting reassignment’ took place when senior exec’s were under ‘optics pressure’, needed to ‘show responsible streamlining’ as revenue fell. Whether Cust Service was reassigned for personal ambition/ gamesmanship, or reassigned for optics during a downturn, the takeaway is the same –the dept wasn’t important– its staff weren’t worth worrying about. Changing managers erratically & often would upend staff career plans, long term projects … but who cares? Being repeatedly moved around spoke volumes on how Customer Service was viewed.

Point of these stories? Look b4 you leap; choose a dept with visibility, importance. Also: research their actions, not words- ensure HISTORY shows that one CAN transfer from this dept into your desired dept. Yes you CAN try to ‘pioneer change’, ‘break thru’, ‘make company history’, etc but consider that big change is usually more easily done by a manager, than a novice recruit

CNN just listed some brands lost in 2025; https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/30/business/retailers-lost-2025

-what might we learn from this?

imo Party City lost occasion-based binge bulk buys to $ stores, a mini-section in Wally etc; the concept didn’t require/justify a full sized standalone outlet; a ‘store w/i store’ approach made more sense.

Joanns was a Michaels competitor for fabrics, crafts but admit it: folks arts makers, tailors & home seamstresses, nostalgic handcrafters are all increasingly niche; so …standalone stores? Sorry- etail & ‘store w/i a store’ make more sense. Where else does that take us? How about ….housewares? a sector vulnerable to Create & Barrel/ Pottery Barn from above, etailer Wayfare from below, Indigo & Canadian Tire from the sidelines. Can’t imagine it’s easy to work for Bouclair et al right now.

Rite Aid had bigger issues, strong competitors who were wiser on merch selection, layout, loyalty programs, vendor management,… Long ago Rite Aid did wise location analysis, but (despite the ‘location, location location’ adage) it wasn’t enough to sustain them.

Forever 21? Nothing to see here, folks; keep moving. Nothing new if a teen appeal brand can’t hold its cool forever (perhaps the Gods themselves were upset at the entitled attitude of the name*?).

Temporary = the rule, not the exception; for youth retail, clothing retail. For… perhaps….2 decades? Thrifty’s, Claire’s, Frank & Oak, Smart Set, Danier, Jacob, Jean Machine, Campus Crew, Aéropostale- all of them fell in Canada. That didn’t kill the brand’s potential to be repositioned as store w/i a store, or their top brands/IP being sold off; HBC did so with its iconic Stripes for blankets, apparel & more. That’s what Zellers did NOT do well; its house brands were fumbled when Target took their locations & their HBC parent’s attention was on The Bay; ‘Cherokee’ ‘Zeddy’ & a Club Z loyalty program (arguably a decade ahead of its time) were left to die but could have been sold off, licensed. A wasteful, sloppy ‘wind-down’ of ops & assets

1 lesson here is: none of us (& perhaps fewer of our brands than we hope) are ‘forever’. Morbid as it is- it’s wise to plan ahead. Like a planned funeral! eg if I ran (still strong for the moment) Garage clothing stores – objectively what are my assets? to whom could they be most valuable? At worst, this Porter-ish strategy exercise starts you thinking differently about competitors, collaborators. At best, it might make a more orderly transition, if/when ‘that day’ does come.

*can’t help think the Gods smiled when ‘Forever’ 21 died, but wouldn’t be surprised if they let ‘Garage’ go on a bit longer, smiling wryly at the humility of a brand name just 1 letter away from ‘Garbage’ 🙂

per a tune a couple decades ago by Keane tune “Everybody’s changin … and I don’t feel the same”; it’s intriguing for this Boomer to watch Gen X -and now Gen Y- get that nostalgic feeling. Resourceful marketers have always known Nostalgia is as inevitable as aging; demographic-savvy UofT economist David Foot’s Boom, Bust & Echo predicted the housing price surge a generation in advance, so, my good marketers- why not get ahead of the curve?

My kids & their pals are now having kids; I can’t imagine those parents NOT feelin chuffed to send kiddies to school with Mom & Dad-bought lunchboxes, stickers, clothing touting RugRats, Ren & Stimpy, Sailor Moon, The Incredibles, Gargoyles, ReBoot, Pinky & The Br… –> I bet you can finish this list.

But what about Auto nostalgia (the Supra, NSX, Scirocco, Viper, MR2, …). Surely Acura (Integra re-issue) can’t be the only auto firm to see the potential of Oldies looking back on misspent youth yearning for an auto they emotionally identified with- and couldn’t then afford!

The fashion (apparel/footwear/gym bag) industry has long won $$$ by re-issuing old ideas, recapturing a moment: eg 70’s Bohemian /frilly style, oversized sunglasses, wide legged pants, lace, corduroy, …

No matter which industry you’re in, there are undoubtedly valuable ‘moments’ you might seize upon eg a license partner, partner brand, noted throwback celeb,…

Sure, Dolph Lundgren doesn’t now look like he once did ….but who does?

Blade Runner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAZqE2DnxUI

Here’s a fine post on Nostalgia:

https://canadianbusiness.com/ideas/nostalgic-brand-comebacks

You’re all invited to get Keane on Nostalgia!

CNN reports that Amazon will soon discontinue plastic pillows used to pack items for shipping.

No surprise.

The surprise is the lag-time for ‘Zon to get around to doing it.

eg Kimberly-Clark was using Paper Pillows for freight cushioning almost 4 decades ago. And yes, they were costlier than plastic- but it was the right thing to do.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/21/business/amazon-stops-using-plastic-pillows

Imagine what a firm as big & profitable as Amazon might achieve by investing to create net new eco-responsible solutions, rather than wait for its supply chain to create & prove solutions, then wait decades more for the public pressure to win out vs the economic savings of plastic.

Amazon doesn’t let me ‘group together’ or ‘bulk up’ my item orders before checkout; imo giving consumers that choice, so they can reduce the delivery carbon footprint, should be e-tail ‘price of entry’.

It’s sad that ‘Zon doesn’t get more public backlash for a lack of effort to protect the planet. But BE-4* you ask why the firm doesn’t try harder to be responsible, a firm’s #ethics start at the top– and this firm’s owner, instead of investing in solutions for this planet, spends billions on methane-belching rocket voyages that extend his pollution footprint beyond our own planet.

An update via CBC on Dollarama’s eco-fee class action lawsuit- imo a troubled topic- retailers must make margin but also try to send worthy ‘eco signals’ – perhaps in future more retailers will try to reduce the need to fight such lawsuits by more explicitly showing/explaining any specific eco-fees? via emails, websites, store signage?

Maybe it’s just me – but imo charging an eco fee on batteries & other discardable electronics/ hazardous waste is a defensible approach if one is upfront about it & where the fee$ are donated/spent.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/dollarama-class-settlement-dismissed-1.7235668

there’s a lot of press now about ‘short-sizing’ or ‘pack count reductions’ or ‘shrinkflation’- as BBC’s Alexis Benveniste indicated in this thoughtful piece.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230922-shrinkflation-isnt-a-trend-its-a-permanent-hit-to-your-wallet

Just an FYI for marketers- this is nothing new!

Pack size reductions were common in the 1970’s, again in late 80’s & mid90’s during bouts of inflation. Low inflation usually discourages such practises, but even in noninflationary times, sometimes brands’ costs increase (with product improvements, etc), yet they face a ‘sensitive’ price point eg 99 cents or $1.99 etc. The first Fast Moving Consumer Good in a competitive category brand to jump to $1.09 or $2.09 will meet huge at-shelf purchase hesitation; some of their users will give a competitive brand a try, etc, etc. Ergo– they may reduce the contents …and hold the price.

Do consumers notice? Sometimes.

Is it legal? Usually – although certain categories are regulated so that consumers may compare items head to head. Jam used to be all 250ml or 500ml sizes- shrinking to 225ml would invite regulator fury. Facial tissue used to be 100 or 200 tissues/box; White Swan tissues launched a 150 count in Canada & their product was forced off the shelf (years later, the legislation changed; the same brands who had cried “Foul!” at White Sewan, gleefully cut their 200 count boxes, to a now-legal 150 sheets).

Well so what’s the harm?

For 1 thing, per Social Media ‘outings’, an unannounced count reduction seems ….sleazy & underhanded?

And….it’s a logistical nightmare. Ever play dominoes? This is dominoes. Change the pack count, and…

the product description changes, so the UPC often must change.

if shelf dimensions change, then every Planogram system changes, corrugate shippers dimensions are altered, production line case packers are reconfigured (sometimes means ordering ‘change parts’ & taking the line down to install them).

if the unit WEIGHT changes, corrugate declarations change (OSHA!), pallet layer configurations may change (40×48!), pallet counts & case weights change, pallet weights & truck shipping logistics change,..

So the next time you Marketing gurus go for a seemingly-easy “Let’s just cut back contents per unit”, be aware you set in motion many, many consequences; the Graphics, Purchasing, Manufacturing, Logistics/Shipping teams won’t salute your genius. The Customer Service / Customer Relations ppl who must field the complaints won’t salute your genius. The Key Account Sales pro’s that now have to justify/rationalize/sell this change to retailers won’t salute your genius.

So.. be sure you have looked thoroughly at all reasonable alternatives first.

There are fine courses, seminars & staffers dedicated to helping college students shine in the (admittedly intimidating, often frustrating) recruiting process, but this article deals with a question that’s thoroughly predictable. Kudos to Emily Durham at Canadian Business! Love the advice to use a 2-part reply (a summary/ overview, then the detail); I’d hope you would do so while closely monitoring the interviewer’s non-verbal cues (ie body language).

Wise candidates will PRACTISE their answer to this question & include relevant, compelling ‘success metrics’ in the follow up part of a reply ie not “…while at Acme Co., I improved sales”, but “…while at Acme Co., I improved sales +21% over a 2 year period”). https://canadianbusiness.com/ideas/answer-why-should-we-hire-you-in-job-interview/

I’ve set ‘public’ 20 videos (2 to 7 minutes long) on Applied Marketing Research & various insight-generating & analysis topics for aspiring marketing, advertising & business pro’s. Hope they help.

Do comment if you see anything to correct, add to, give an example of, etc; appreciate your help to better ‘pay it forward’.

The videos may help as you write a Brief, start Secondary Research, wonder what it means to create an Avatar, ponder whether to do Qual research instead of Quant, are trying to figure out how to design a Survey or write a Research Objective, are asked to gauge Market Potential, etc.

And if you do like them, click the ole ‘thumbs up’. Thanks much

https://www.youtube.com/@stevenlitt2435/videos