Department Store Secrets

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Department Stores of the World - North America

Here are the Top Department Stores North America.

Click here for USA and Canada

Mexico

Saks Fifth Avenue Branch of the United States based company
El Palacio de Hierro High end department store.
Dorian's a division of Carso Comercial
Sanborns a division of Carso Comercial, spread throughout the country.
Liverpool Biggest Department store chain in Mexico.
Fábricas de Francia Other department store by Liverpool.
Sears Roebuck de México - A division of Carso Comercial
Cimaco
La Marina
Gran Chapur
Paris - Londres This department store is localized only Durango Mexico.

Department Stores of the World - Canada

Here are the Top Department Stores of Canada

Army & Navy Stores
The Bargain! Shop - Discount stores (formerly the Canadian stores of F. W. Woolworth Company).
Bowring Brothers - St. John's, NL. department store. Also national home decor store chain.
Canadian Tire - Auto repair garage, hardware, home renovations, sports, garden centre, electronics, auto parts, furniture, food, housewares, towels. Franchised stores with independent owners.
Costco - USA, warehouse superstore, food, electronics, furniture, clothing, car repair.
Dollar Giant - Dollar store chain, founded in 2001, head office in Vancouver
Dollarama - Canada's largest dollar store chain.
Fields - Discount chain owned by Hudson's Bay Company.
Giant Tiger / Tigre Géant - Discount stores.
Hart Stores - Eastern Canada discount chain.[1]

Holt Renfrew - A high-end department store.
Korvette - Found in various regions in the province of Quebec.
LALIBERTÉ - On St-Joseph Street in Quebec City.
La Maison Ogilvy - High-end department store in Montreal.
L'Aubainerie - Quebec mid-size discount store similar to Giant Tiger. Formerly known as Croteau, some selected locations continue to trade under the former name.
La Maison Simons - Quebec, Montreal, Gatineau, Sherbrooke, Laval
Liquidation World - Furniture, hardware, home, grocery, health & beauty, clothing liquidation retailer with outlets across Canada.
London Drugs - Western Canadian department store chain that sells personal care products, snacks, electronics, and computers.
Mark's Work Wearhouse - Canadian clothing retailer that is now owned by Canadian Tire.

Riff's - Newfoundland department store chain.
Rossy - Discount store chain in Quebec and New Brunswick.
S&R Department Store - Discount store in Kingston. (closed)
Sears Canada - Formerly Simpsons-Sears.
Stedmans V&S - Discount stores.
Taylor's - Quebec department store chain.
The Bay/La Baie - Department store owned by Hudson's Bay Company.
The North West Company - Retail, primarily northern and smaller towns.

Walmart Canada - US-based international discount store.
Winners - Part of U.S giant TJX Companies
XS Cargo - Discount retailer chain dealing in clearance items.
Zellers - Discount department store owned by Hudson's Bay Company.

Department Stores of the World - Africa

Here are the Top Department Stores of Africa

Morocco

South Africa

Zimbabwe

Edgars Stores

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Store Diary - A Must for Managers

Every store manager or supervisor must have a store diary. All key positions in the store should have his or her own diary. This journal contains all the daily happenings and events in the whole store or in the department where he or she is assigned. Why? This diary will connect the past, the present, and the future of the store. Let me give you an example...

In making sales analysis, the supervisor will need to answer why in a certain period that is his sales compared to the past year. Automatically he would need to look into the days within that period, that's where the diary comes in. That's the Present. Then he would look what were the events the past year that contributed to a bigger sales or lower one compared to present. Maybe he would uncover that there was a wholesale last year leading to bigger sales or that the competitor had a sale event leading to lower sales. That's the Past. Afterward, with the trending he can foresee that by next year this time the set up would be like this or that based on his data from the Past and Present. Now, that's the Future.

Here are 12 things you should not miss in the store diary:

1. Sales of the day (A separate notebook for this would also do)

2. Customer Traffic (Shoppers vs. Buyers)

3. Wholesale Transactions

4. Store Events

5. Community Events (Holidays, Disaster, etc.)

6. Merchandising Issues

7. Logistic Issues

8. Visual Display Changes

9. New or Revised Policies

10. Projects (Established, Updates, Accomplishments)

11. Customer Concerns

12. Competitors Moves

You may not have all those within a day but any significant happenings should be jot downed in this diary. Surely, this simple notebook would be of great help to any manager as he would tackle down the different challenges of the store.