Sol Price’s Great Idea
Yesterday I posted about the passing of the great retailer Sol Price and I posed a question. Price said that an “intelligent loss of customers ” was his best idea. What did that mean?
Here is the answer
“It means you have to decide what sales you are prepared to live without. Can you live without credit cards that cost you two points? Can you live without advertising? Can you live without $35-to-$40-a-foot occupancy costs for a prime location?”
Price’s stores lived without credit card shoppers, without advertising and without expensive store space. And as a result, he was the first to deliver great prices in high volume.
Here is the obit. So long, Sol!
December 20th, 2009 at 11:25 am
A San Diego girl myself (where he started his mega-gig), I used to joke that just browsing in Price Club (and later, CostCo) would cost at least $50!
December 20th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Agreed! Of course, by now the model has been copied so often it doesn’t seem as radical as it was. And Apple has given us an alternative retailing model that may be even more successful. Hold on to that wallet!