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\"ThePardon me, but I just can’t help myself. I seem to have an Edgar Allan Poe-like fixation. In this case I’m stuck on small format retailing, including “moms and pops,” as a winning model in the over-stored and -stuffed 21st Century. Again, this is due to the format’s “smallness,” which affords it easier physical access to the consumer, across the street in their neighborhoods. It’s my preemptive distribution “thing” again: the necessity to get to the consumer first, faster and more often than the hordes of equally compelling competitors, or you lose.

And, while everybody says, “…oh yeah, I get it,” most are thinking about e-commerce. Well, while I most certainly understand that e-commerce is enormous, and the fastest growing retail preemptor, I’m finding it very difficult to get my senior retail executive readers to understand that the bricks and mortar/physical aspect of the total preemptive distribution strategy is just as important.

My article Size Matters: Small Is In does give credit to some of the larger players, like Walmart (WMT), Home Depot (HD), Best Buy (BBY), Office Depot (ODP), Staples (SPLS), Target, CVS (CVS) and Walgreen’s (WAG), as beginning to get it. And, I do believe Walmart opened their eyes a bit wider upon realizing they were losing enormous share to the dollar stores who are blowing out their small, neighborhood stores across the country. In the department store sector, as I’ve said many times, Kohl’s led the small, convenient, neighborhood strategy way before I think they even realized it, back in the early 90’s. JCPenney (JCP) picked up on the wisdom of that preemptive strategy and now has its own small store strategy. Bloomingdale’s does as well, and I wonder when their parent Macy’s (M) will opt in. Their localization strategy certainly begs for it.

And, by the way, while this small store strategy is a necessity to continue winning share of a no-growth pie, the big traditional players also must understand that the other preemptive formats such as branded specialty chains, e- and m-commerce, TV, kiosks, pop-ups, food carts, in-flight shopping, door-to-door, living room selling parties, tractor-trailer tour trucks, and probably a dozen others I’ve missed, are not sitting still. They will continue to evolve and create. Evermore.

Also, if this scenario isn’t enough to give you an Edgar Allan Poe moment, what about new preemptive retail formats spewing forth, such as Little BobCars: Big New Preemptor? Finally, to break through my obsession, I did weigh in on what seems to be the return to private equity and M&A deal making, however, not without the rather cynical cautionary note that I do hope everybody else is right and I’m wrong as the last “double-dipper” standing, who still believes another economic correction looms. Regardless, read Let The Deals Begin Or: Don’t Touch That Dial. An accompanying article by our own Judy Russell (M&A Musings) zeroes in on some specific potential targets and some color around why. And, please browse through all the additional wonders we have going on the site: you will enjoy video interviews with Steve Sadove, CEO of Saks Inc. (SKS), and Neil Cole, CEO of Iconix (ICON). If you’re new to The Robin Report, please indulge yourself in past articles, which are as relevant today as when they were written.

Enjoy the read.

Robin

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