ETD: 802 DHL: will they make it?; Retail Trivia; Mastertech Marine

[E-Tailer's Digest]

  E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the  Retailer
  Issue #0802               July 20, 2004
  George Matyjewicz, Moderator         mailto:georgem at gapent.com
  Published by:  GAP Enterprises, Ltd.  http://www.etailersdigest.com
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   CONTENTS

  [1]  Greetings
  [2]  DHL: will they make it?
  [3]  Retail Trivia
  [4]  Mastertech Marine

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  [1]  Greetings.
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Hi All:

This week I read an interesting fact:  In 1987, American Airlines saved 
$40,000 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first 
class.  That brought to mind two things:

1.  It's the simple things that work (or watch the pennies and the dollars 
will come along)
2.  Trivia is a lot of fun.

So, today I posted some interesting retail trivia.  Was Wanamaker's the 
first department store or was it ZCMI?  What is the "Incorruptible Cashier?"

Anybody have any others?

A client tried DHL global services and has had very disappointing 
results.  Does anybody have experiences with them?

We have a profile on Mastertech Marine.  Tell us about your business which 
will remain  for posterity at our  "Members: Who Are You?" 
site.   http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a 
form there for you to tell us about you.  As I said when I first proposed 
this idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't 
know anything about each other.   So, tell us who you are and what you do.

Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.

Sincerely


George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com

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  [2]  DHL: will they make it?
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Has anybody else found issues with DHL?  They are doing a bang up job with 
advertising, and are offering excellent rates for international 
shipments.  However their service seems to be horrible.

An apparel manufacturing client tested them with shipments from Austria to 
US.  Two shipments - one came in damaged and wet; the other got lost in 
customs.  You would think they would have their act together before the 
advertise eh?

On the side of the DHL truck, it says "Operated by Airborne Express."  And 
at their site you will find they are part of Danzas the Deutsche Postal 
Service. And they are spending a fortune on advertising.

How about you?  Who do you use for global delivery?  For local?  Does it work?

George

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  [3]  Retail Trivia
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o The first shopping mall was the Country Club Plaza, founded by the J.C. 
Nichols Company and opened near Kansas City, Mo., in 1922.

o The first enclosed mall called Southdale opened in Edina, Minnesota (near 
Minneapolis) in 1956.

o In 1981 the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, opened with more than 
800 stores and a hotel, amusement park, miniature-golf course, church, 
"water park" for sunbathing and surfing, a zoo and a 438-foot-long lake.

o Sylvan Goldman invented the first shopping cart in 1936 for use in his 
Oklahoma City grocery chain Standard/Piggly-Wiggly. He invented the first 
shopping cart by adding two wire basket and wheels to a folding chair. 
Goldman, together with mechanic Fred Young, later designed a dedicated 
shopping cart in 1947 and formed the Folding Carrier Co. to manufacture the 
carts.

o Silicon Valley inventor George Cokely - the same guy behind the Pet Rock 
- has come up with a modern solution to one of the supermarket industry's 
oldest problems: stolen shopping carts. It's called Stop Z-Cart. The wheel 
of the shopping cart hold the device which contains a chip and some 
electronics, when the cart is rolled over a certain distance away from the 
store, the shopping cart owners know about it.

o Harold Evans patented (US patent #5,306,033) a shopping cart bumper 
system, a foam wrap-around unit that protects while providing valuable 
advertising space.

o Horton Automatics developed and sold the first automatic sliding door in 
America in 1960. The company co-founders Dee Horton and Lew Hewitt invented 
the sliding automatic door in 1954. Their automatic doors used a mat actuator.

o A Philadelphia pharmacist named Asa Candler invented the coupon in 1895. 
Candler bought the Coca-Cola company from the original inventor Dr. John 
Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist. Candler placed coupons in newspaper for a 
free Coke from any fountain - to help promote the new soft drink.

o The first patent for bar code (US Patent #2,612,994) was issued to 
inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver on October 7, 1952.

o In 1884, James Ritty invented what was nicknamed the "Incorruptible 
Cashier" or the first working, mechanical cash register.

o Aaron Montgomery Ward sent out his first mail order catalog in 1872 - for 
his Montgomery Ward mail order business located at Clark and Kinzie Streets 
in Chicago. The first catalog consisted of a single sheet of paper with a 
price list, 8 by 12 inches, showing the merchandise for sale with ordering 
instructions.

o According to Hoover's online, "Bloomingdale's was founded in 1872 by 
brothers Lyman and Joseph Bloomingdale, the store rode the popularity of 
the hoop skirt to sales success and practically invented the department 
store concept at the beginning of the 20th century. Bloomingdale's joined 
the Federated corporate family in 1930."

o In 1877, John Wanamaker opened "The Grand Depot" a six story round 
department store in Philadelphia. According to Andrew Maykuth Online, "John 
Wanamaker never claimed to have invented the department store, but he was 
on the cutting edge of a trend. The retail giants of the day, Marshall 
Field in Chicago, Alexander T. Steward in New York, were discovering that 
the vast power of buying wholesale could cut costs to reduce retail 
prices." John Wanamaker is credited with developing one of the first (if 
not the first) true department stores in the country, and with creating the 
first White Sale, modern price tags, and the first in-store restaurant. He 
also pioneered the use of money-back guarantees and newspaper ads to 
advertise his retail goods.

o In 1868, Mormon leader Brigham Young, founded Zion's Cooperative 
Mercantile Institution (ZMCI) in Salt Lake City, which some historians 
credit as being the first department store however, most historians give 
the credit to John Wanamaker. According to the Pioneers, "ZCMI first sold 
clothing, dry goods, drugs, groceries, produce, shoes, trunks, sewing 
machines, wagons, and machinery. It was thus a department store from the 
very start and ZCMI claims to be America's first full-fledged department 
store at birth."

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blshopping.htm

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  [4]  Mastertech Marine
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Since 1999 Mastertech Marine has supplied parts, service literature and 
technical assistance for all makes of outboard motors.  The business was 
started because of declining retail sales of new product due to my product 
line manufacturers shortsightedness, this eventually put them into 
bankruptcy (Outboard Marine Corporation).  I believe we are better than the 
competition, because we  know more than they do, as well as providing 
unique technical information on our website http://www.mastertechmarine.com/

We market our business via word of mouth, links, some Overture and Googling.


Bill Kelly
Mastertech
Mastertech Marine
7031 Santa Clara Drive
Navarre, FL 32566
Tel: 850-936-4231


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