George Whalin Quotes (40 Quotes)

This convenience issue is enormous, and it has less to do with saving money than with saving time.

Some companies will certainly take advantage of any reason to raise prices. However, when your business is dependent on fleet of vehicles, gas prices may become a legitimate reason for raising prices.

If they're going to reposition their place in the market, this is the way to do it, ... It's a very wise move.

I think the women's business is much tougher than anything else they have been in. It doesn't seem like a natural extension to me. They have begun to get a better selection of merchandise and the business is getting better, but they don't have a real track record here yet.

All these new gimmicks are very interesting but the jury's still out about their impact on the consumer or if they'll be cost-effective in the long run ... People don't shop at a store because of one thing but a combination of factors. Even if shoppers like the fancy technology, a rude employee can turn them away from the store.

The whole consumer electronics industry is seeing a flattening of their business this summer.

Security and privacy concerns, especially with RFID chip technology, are enormous,

The department store business has gone through enormous changes in the last 10 years and we aren't through yet. It's a retail format that doesn't have a great future in it. Consumers have decided traditional department stores aren't their favorite places to shop.

I would be very surprised if Kmart doesn't completely go away in the two to three years, or become something completely different,

I think people are nervous about their jobs and when people get nervous about their jobs, they get very careful about spending.

On the other hand, every major retailer subscribes to weather consulting firms that give seasonal forecasts over a period of a year in advance. They can better plan inventory accordingly.

It's all about jobs. As long as people are confident about their jobs and being able to find one, they will spend. The job market so far is holding up well.

We're continuing to see retailers cite the weather for either making or breaking their sales numbers. Frankly, I think is an excuse tailored to satisfy Wall Street. Wall Street is a little more forgiving if a major retailer blames weather for disappointing sales.

If they're in the middle of remodeling this shopping center, they're not going to stop until they finish it. They can't realize their investment until they complete construction.

The no. 1 domestic growth driver will be grocery. Wal-Mart has a lot of room to grow there. It's already the No. 1 grocer in Texas.

The upper end of the economy has done very well and the stock market is at a 3-12 year high. This bodes well for the high-end merchants, ... Discounters would have had a hard time because their customers were impacted by higher gas prices and uncertainty about jobs.

These little niche markets such as banking and publishing don't make economic sense for Wal-Mart,

The shopping buddy is an interesting concept but it's essentially an experiment. The future of traditional supermarkets isn't that good right now and companies operating in the channel have to find ways to capture the consumer's attention.

They have significant challenges ahead. May stores had a lot of loyal customers, and it won't be easy to convert them.

No retailer can afford to underestimate the importance of good marketing and public relations. Target also comes across as a better corporate citizen than Wal-Mart because it makes it a point to inform people about its efforts to give back to communities.

I don't think the union-based special interest groups and the government are two separate issues. I think they're tied together. Now more than ever Wal-Mart is facing a lot of pressure coming from so many different directions. I think that's why Wal-Mart is putting more effort into communicating with the media.

Generally retailers would like to have employees come to the store when they most need them. They want to staff stores when they are the busiest, like on weekends, near the holidays or when the weather is good or bad.

There isn't going to be any doubt that they're going to close some stores. It may be substantial.

He's not a retailer. He's never been a retailer, ... The guy who's running merchandizing and marketing is not a guy who's qualified to do that. This is baffling to me. It's mind-boggling.

A couple decent quarters do not a turnaround make. The competitive issues haven't changed that much. February sales looked better but they're also set against easier comparisons. There's still a long way to go until a real turnaround.

E-tailing's on fire This is a banner year for online retail sales, ... The weather was an enormous factor for the big holiday sales numbers. The other factor is that consumers are much more comfortable using the Internet and they're appreciating the convenience of it.

They've got locations that Wal-Mart would die for. They're in visible locations in communities where people spend money. There's no reason this thing can't be turned around.

Typically, when a mall falls on hard times, it never recovers. They end up being torn down.

This was life-and-death for them, ... They had to make some moves to make this thing profitable.

It's a highly volatile business and simply not Wal-Mart's specialty, ... Let's not forget that Sears tried getting into a lot of other businesses -- it was selling insurance, it had a car rental service, a credit card business. It turned out to be a disaster.

If you're not wanted in one neighborhood, California is big enough for retailers to find someplace else where they will be welcome.

One thing everyone looks at when you get down to that part of the county is how much business you will get from Mexico. That is a very important part of the equation.

It's not a coincidence that we're hearing China come up so much lately, ... Many companies were simply waiting to observe Wal-Mart's mistakes first and then plan their entry.

Technological innovation always precedes demand. It's not necessarily what the market wants or is willing to adapt to,

Discounters and apparel are the heart and soul of this period simply because there are so many kids today that are going to school,

Lowe's and Home Depot may have got caught in the middle of this, ... Retailers are under tremendous pressure by Wall Street to keep growing.... Should that be at the cost of a community I don't think so.

There's business to be had. The driving factors are the catalog and Internet guys.

The retail business in general is strong, and Federated is doing well, considering it has stores in major cities such as New York and San Francisco, where the affluent shopper is driving a lot of sales.

These are not cookie-cutter businesses. They require unique discipline and mind set.

There was overall confidence in the consumer's mind, with jobs stable and gasoline prices going down.