OPINIONATED • OUTSPOKEN • UNBIASED THE FALL 2015 GLOBAL REPORTS FROM BRAZIL, CUBA, ITALY AND MEXICO PAGES 17,18,23,32,42 MILLENNIALS: TALKING LUXURY AND THE WORKPLACE OF THE FUTURE PAGES 8, 40 COSTCOHOLICS 75 MILLION ADDICTS AND COUNTING PAGE 3 / 1 TOC Featured Contributors: RANDY BURT VISHWA CHANDRA NADIA SHOURABOURA Randy Burt is a Partner in the Consumer Goods Vishwa Chandra is a Partner in Dr. Nadia Shouraboura is a retail and Retail Practice at A.T. Kearney, a global A.T. Kearney's Consumer Goods and revolutionary. She holds a Ph.D. in strategy and management consulting firm. Retail Practice, where he partners Mathematics from Princeton University, He has over 16 years of experience in consumer with food, mass, drug and value has extensive retail and technology products and Food Retailing with focus on retail retailers to drive merchandising experience, and was former head of strategy, Fresh and Center Store merchandising, effectiveness and supply chain Supply Chain and Fulfillment Technolo- ecommerce, and supply chain. He also spent efficiency. He is also a leader in the gies for Amazon.com. Nadia also served five years at the Nielsen Company in a variety firm's Consumer institute, where he on Jeff Bezos's senior leadership team, of market research and data operations roles. leads primary research on the ever which was responsible for overall He is a regular speaker and author on online evolving consumer landscape and direction and operations of Amazon. grocery and other food retail topics. its implications for retailers. CEO, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Robin Lewis Inside this Issue COO, EDITOR Deborah Patton Costcoholics Millennials at Work CSO 28 Judith Russell 3 Robin Lewis Maxwell Montgomery ART DIRECTORS The Love of a Favorite Steffi Sauer, Deanna Stewart My View Nadia Shouraboura 30 Catherine Salfino PUBLIC RELATIONS 5 Meir Kahtan The Omnishopper Applied Theory on Brazil: ADVERTISING SALES AND 6 Ted Iacobuzio 32 Notes From the Tropics RATE INFORMATION Paco Underhill [email protected] Creative Disruption 8 in Retail Design Uberizing Anthony Robins 34 Dana Wood CONTRIBUTING COLUMNISTS Randy Burt Retail’s Learning Pipeline: From 7 Secrets of ‘Voice of the Customer’ Success in Retail Vishwa Chandra 10 Clicks to Bricks and Back Again 36 Bridget Johns Sarah Simon Mark A. Cohen Pam Danziger Home for the Holidays Fall Into The Gap Marie Driscoll 12 Warren Shoulberg 38 Robin Lewis Ted Iacobuzio Understanding Omnichannel Bridget Johns How to Talk Luxury to Millennials 14 Shoppers Through Receipt Len Lewis 40 Pam Danziger Mining Robin Lewis Andy Mantis Origins Andy Mantis 42 Marie Driscoll David Marcotte Mi Casa Es Su Casa—Maybe! David Merrefield 16 Len Lewis Grocery (Finally) Gets With It Max Montgomery 44 Randy Burt and Vishwa Chandra Gwen Morrison Postcard from Havana Deborah Patton 18 Deborah Patton Seattle: America’s Capital of Retail Anthony Robins 46 Robert Spector CEO Insights with Gerry Storch Catherine Salfino 20 Robin Lewis Cautionary Tales Warren Shoulberg 49 Mark. A. Cohen Nadia Shouraboura Expanding Globally? Sarah Simon 23 Then Consider Mexico Whole Foods’ Ham Handed Moves Robert Spector Gwen Morrison and 51 David Merrefield Paco Underhill David Marcotte Dana Wood Copyright © 2015 Robin Lewis, Inc. All rights reserved. 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All expressions of opinion are subject to It’s quick and easy. Simply go to TheRobinReport.com, click on subscribe, enter your change without notice. To order a print or electronic email address, and you will begin receiving The Robin Report online free of charge. subscription to The Robin Report, please visit our website at www.TheRobinReport.com. 2 / WWW.THEROBINREPORT.COM / FALL 2015 ROBINREPORT “COSTCOHOLICS” COSTCO’S $113.7 BILLION ADDICTS A good friend of mine was talking about store. And this is not a one-off, let’s-see- towels—in fact, more of any product it de- Costco recently, raving on and on about what-it’s-like kind of visit. The renewal cides to offer its members—than just about how she couldn’t resist shopping there rate is a whopping 90 percent each year. any other retailer, allowing it to negotiate at least two to three times a week. She I guess that captures the power of an the lowest prices from vendors. It sets said sometimes she doesn’t even plan addict’s behavior. the standard for the lowest pricing in the on buying anything. She just loves industry; not even Amazon can beat it. wandering around in the enormous, Not only is 80 percent of Costco’s gross As a result, the Internet has disrupted two-football-field-sized warehouse, margin and 70 percent of its operating Costco less than it has other retailers. hunting for what’s new (Costco turns income derived from its Costcoholics’ over its entire inventory 12 times per membership fees, Costco collects most And since 80 percent of its gross margin year). She is also obsessed by what the of its profits 12 months in advance, not and 70 percent of its operating income big designer or luxury “surprise” of the at the eleventh hour of the fiscal year come from its membership fees, Costco week might be; stuff like Waterford like most other retailers. keeps margins razor thin, with markups Crystal, Coach handbags or Omega at 15 percent or less, compared to 25 watches, to name a few, all selling out These “druggies” bought enough stuff percent for supermarkets and 50 percent quickly for shock-and-awe low prices. during Costco’s 2015 fiscal year (ended for department stores. Costco’s prices And even though she may have shopped August 30th), to pump revenues up to are on average 30 percent below large with no intention of purchasing, she $113.7 billion (a 3 percent increase supermarket chains’. says she always finds something that over 2014). Costco is the second largest seduces her to buy. retailer in the U.S. after Walmart, with Because of the relatively low number 480 warehouses. Internationally there of SKUs that Costco carries, the Costco So as she is telling me about her are 89 Costco warehouses in Canada, model is simpler, cheaper and easier compulsive obsession, or obsessive 36 in Mexico, 27 in the UK, 23 in Japan, to execute, and it is inherently more compulsion, for this almost out-of-body 12 in Korea, 11 in Taiwan, 7 in Australia productive than that of the average experience she has every time she goes in and one in Spain. And Costco plans to retailer. It requires less time to sort, to Costco, I think I observe a slight trem- open 14 new warehouses (including two restock, reorder and deliver product. or—almost as though she’s going through relocations) before the end of calendar Costco eschews carrying multiple brands some sort of withdrawal. The next thing year 2015. of products that are similar, except of out of her mouth is, “I must plan a dinner course when it has its Kirkland Signature party for this weekend so I can get over A COMBINATION DRUG private label brand to sell. Think about it: there tomorrow and get some steaks and A major supermarket chain like Kroger’s another case of red wine.” Just to give At the core of Costco’s model is a might offer 40 different peanut butter you some context, world renowned chef philosophy that was embedded by its SKUs; Trader Joe’s has ten; and Costco’s Julia Child bought her meat from Costco, founder and CEO, Jim Sinegal, from its has two. Costco’s 4000 total SKU’s is and the retailer is the largest purveyor inception in 1993, then passed on to its narrow, but it allows them to buy huge of fine wines in the U.S. Incredibly, to current CEO, Craig Jelinek, when he took quantities and charge lower prices. me, my friend did plan a dinner party the helm in 2013. This philosophy was just as an excuse to go to Costco. Now handed down to Sinegal by his longtime A second part of the Costco drug combo that redefines the neurological addiction employer and mentor, Sol Price, who was is the treasure hunt—the discovery of I’ve been writing about for years. the pioneer of the “warehouse store” something not needed, but impulsively retail model, launching Fed Mart in the desired. Each store’s main aisle is A “COSTCOHOLIC” INDEED! 1950s and Price Club in 1976. designed in a racetrack layout, which leads customers to circle the entire floor She is just one of the over 75 million Price never allowed employees to use and view the entire mix of product offer- “mainlining” Costco members (and the word ‘discount.’ The way Price’s ings, often enticing them to buy things growing in high single digits annually), mind worked was to focus on the lowest they didn’t necessarily set out to buy.