Sep 03
In hopes of regaining lost market share and bolstering slumping sales, the popular drug store chain Walgreens is reversing its 15-year-old alcohol sales ban and will begin to carry alcohol in stores located in states that allow it.
Until the mid-90s, Walgreens was one of the nation’s largest liquor retailers with most stores having full liquor selections available. Alcoholic beverages comprised about 10% of its total sales revenues. Costs began to rise as staff and maintenance began to cut into profits on the liquor sales and Walgreens finally stopped carrying alcohol altogether.
Beer and wine sales have been re-introduced into about 3,100 of the drug store chain’s 7.500 stores nationally and will become available in about 5,000 stores nationally by year’s end.
Walgreens, which prides itself on its community-oriented image, sees this move as a response to sluggish sales and losing market share while rivals such as CVS and Rite Aid both offer beer and wine on their store shelves. Walgreens plans to go a step further and offer local fare at some stores, such as stocking locally-produced Washington State wines in their regional stores in the northwest.
Due to crime concerns, however, the drug chain will not be stocking anything more than beer and wine for now.
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Jan 11
Most companies right now are clamping down on their marketing budgets, trying to trim the fat where it’s not necessary.
For General Mills, that strategy was counterintuitive; they need consumers to consider their products perfect for the burgeoning recession, and they ramped up their marketing spending by 16%. Their reward? An 8% increase in revenue, with 14.7 billion in sales, and a consumer base that thought the company’s products were the perfect comfort foods for these difficult times.
General Mills provides a lot of supermarket staples, including soup, cereal, baking goods, instant mixes, and other such homey comforts. Granted, they’re in an industry that naturally endears them to budget strapped Americans. Hamburger Helper, for instance, has improved their sales astronomically, due in no small part to its association with low budgets.
The comfort factor cannot be denied, though. Many of General Mills’ products are sold in similar forms by other companies – the different being that General Mills spent their marketing money hard and fast at the beginning of the recession.
While other companies were unsure whether they were willing to take the risk to put in more marketing money, General Mills had already sewn up consumer loyalty. They had officially become the most comforting brands for the recession.
This isn’t to say that they didn’t put in some new strategies too. The Betty Crocker products, for example, now have a wide and expanding base of recipe-seekers in a spanking-new online forum. But sometimes it’s best to stick with tried and true in uncertain times – a message General Mills managed to drive home to consumers just when they needed to hear it most.
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