Let start out with the premise that we as American’s love convenience and anything that saves us time. We love it for our coffee, our lunch and our prescriptions. A liquor store near me actually has a drive thru window. Anything that saves us from getting out of the car we like and will use anytime we can.
So, why not drive thru retail? If I can go online and order soap, shampoo, water, soda and other household items and then go to the store and have them bring them out to my car, can anyone tell me why I would rather wander around the store and get them myself? I mean think about it. I have 4 kids, all under 6. As relaxing and fun as you might think taking all 4 of them to the store to buy household items is, I am finding it really hard to wonder why I would rather not have someone just bring them out to my car for me when I pull up. To be even more honest, I’m finding it hard to think of a reason why I would not do that even if I did not have the kids with me.
A recent study found that convenience is becoming almost as important as price for consumers today.
Enter Sears Holdings (SHLD) concept Mygofer:
From Bnet
Brenda Storch, a spokeswoman for MyGofer and Sears Holding said:
“Our goal is to make life easier for customers and to offer options that were not available before, all designed to save customers time and money. The Joliet store will feature a large online assortment and will cater to shoppers seeking both convenience and value, from the busy parent with three kids in the back seat to the person who needs a last minute gift, the DIY’er or the host that needs to throw a party with very little notice.”
Another way MyGofer provides convenience, she pointed out, is by carrying a broader assortment of products and brands than a traditional retailer including appliances, bed and bath, baby essentials, daily consumables including food, electronics, sporting goods and workwear. “Our customers can browse our expanded assortment which includes thousands of products and trusted brands to meet a variety of budget ranges,” she added. “Over time we will be able to tailor our assortments based on the needs of our customers in a given market.”
Order and pick up are designed to be convenient, too. Customers put together an order at www.mygofer.com, by phone, or at terminals in the store’s showroom lobby, then select when they’d like to receive their merchandise. They can pick up their MyGofer order immediately – or at least within a few minutes – at some other point in the day or days later. Joliet visitors retrieve their products through a drive-thru, via in-store pick-up or by shipment. “MyGofer offers its customers more flexibility than ever before, more choices, more shopping options, and we will save them valuable time on top of that,” Storch said.
Think about it. Family cookout coming this weekend and the wife give you a list Friday night of everything she wants from plastic plates, napkins, soda chips etc. Would you just go online that night, place the order and then go have it brought out to your car in the morning? Or would you rather trudge around the store on a Saturday morning? To me it is a no-brainer.
The service also lets you creates lists so that you can simply 1-click a list rather than searching for all the items each time.
The stores that have it available are listed on this link
We American’s love saving time. If Sears does this right, meaning they have plenty of staff available so it is truly convenient and time saving, this could catch on very easily. But, because it is a new retail concept, execution from day one has to be seamless, otherwise the negative word of mouth will cause the idea to flame out.
Disclosure (“none” means no position):Long SHLD
