1) Will the DMart story play out like Aldi?
when Walmart’s US
CEO Greg Foran invokes words like “fierce,” “good” and “clever” in speaking
almost admiringly about one of his competitors, he’s not referring to Amazon.
Foran is describing Aldi, the no-frills German discount grocery chain that’s
growing aggressively in the United States and reshaping the industry along the
way. Aldi has built a cult-like following. When it enters a new town, it’s not
uncommon for hundreds of people to turn out for the grand opening. The allure
is all in the rock-bottom prices, which are so cheap that Aldi often beats
Walmart at its own low-price game.
There’s no secret to
how Aldi keeps its prices so low: The company strips down the shopping
experience in an unapologetically and brutally efficient way.
2) Or will it grow up to be like Costco?
I am reading up on
the retail companies after a friend insisted I study Dmart. I am fascinated by
Costco. I have shopped a few times there but never bothered to learn its
history or to track its story.
Costco is an
unlikely fashion retailer, but has somehow managed to become a fashion
powerhouse.
Costco’s 85 million
members, who pay an annual fee starting at $60 to gain access to goods at
bargain prices, are filling their baskets with $70 North Face jackets and $13
Jessica Simpson jeans, along with bulk salmon and pasta. The company generated
$7 billion in sales annually in clothes and footwear, which is more than Old
Navy, Neiman Marcus, or Ralph Lauren. Its fashion revenue has been growing at a
rate of about 9% a year for the past four years, which is faster than its food
or electronics business.
3) How to be happy?
When we first get
something that’s awesome, it feels really awesome. But then we get used to it
pretty quickly. This phenomenon is what psychologists call “hedonic adaptation.
The prescriptions?
One was to spend
time and money on things that don’t last as long—that is, things that are
harder to adapt to. What this ends up translating to is the by now well-known
consumerist commandment to “buy experiences, not things.”
The other was to set
aside time to be grateful for what you already have. This may come in the form
of a gratitude journal or a period of brief reflection, and could be as basic
as acknowledging the luxury of taking a hot shower or having a choice about what
to eat for dinner.
4) R3 pontificates on a range of issues
Raghuram Rajan
discusses a vast range of issues. He discusses globalisation, the rise of
nationalistic politics across the world, migration, adapting to new skills,
welfare systems,
Very good read and
practically not possible to summarize.
5) When you are a victim of your own success
You may be aware of
Kleenex, Velcro and ChapStick, but what about escalator? Or dumpster? Linoleum,
zipper, trampoline? All of these are (or were) trademarks of companies whose
products were so successful that they came to represent an entire category. And
it can actually cause quite a problem for those companies.
“When something
becomes so pervasive in everyday society as a result of its own fame, there’s
an argument that it no longer represents the brand, it almost represents the
action,” Mr. Cohen said. “So as a result of that, in trademark law, you cannot
trademark things that are descriptive or generic in nature.”
Bayer Co. v. United
Drug Co. was a seminal case in which Bayer lost its trademark for Aspirin
to what experts now refer to as “genericide.” That 1921 case set the table for
the modern standard that courts currently follow: If a brand name is understood
by the public to refer broadly to a category of goods and services rather than
a brand’s specific good or service, a company may be at risk of losing its
trademark. Escalator, cellophane, and laundromat have all lost their trademark
status to genericide.
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