Major Department Store Research Articles

The Transaction Telephone

During the 1970s we became thoroughly accustomed to the use of “plastic money”; the volume of UK based credit card transactions rose from 10m in 1971 to over 100m by 1979. Today there are over 13m credit cards in circulation, and this excludes other cards issued by department stores and multiples. But this proliferation of plastic creates its own problems. Control needs to be exercised over excessive spending by card‐holders; the unit costs of processing card‐based transactions needs to be contained; and of course the possibility of fraudulent use must be safeguarded against. The transaction telephone is one way in which these problems can be tackled. Already commonplace in the US, they are now being used by some major department store groups in the UK. The first part of this article reviews the range of technological issues which have so far determined the way credit card automation has developed. It also discusses how other technological factors may influence the different kinds of service delivery packages for retailers and ultimately card holders. The second part, to be published in our next issue, will discuss aspects of market strategy development for both the larger and smaller card issuing organisations.

Management without paper

Harvey Nichols, one of London's major department stores, has embarked on a programme that will eliminate paper from their information system, and make data available to all levels of management through the use of Viewdata television.

Learn & Shop: Teaching Composition in Shopping Centers

In January, 1979, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) initiated its Learn & Shop Credit Program. To be sure, the English department, as well as other Liberal Arts departments, had its skeptics: on paper the teaching of credit courses in Indianapolis shopping centers seemed to be an effective way to counter decreasing enrollments; however, looming problems of course administration and pedagogy seemed, if not insurmountable, annoyingly taxing. After five semesters, including 63 sections of 12 English courses, Learn & Shop has become an important, stable, and exciting part of the IUPUI curriculum. The unusual character of Learn & Shop is its use of employee training rooms of major department stores at five suburban shopping centers for classroom space: although an urban commuter university of 21,000 students, IUPUI experienced in Fall, 1978, an unexpected 8.5% drop in enrollment from the year before. To attract a particular kind of adult student-capable of succeeding in college but unwilling to travel to a downtown campus-Learn & Shop was organized on December 4, 1978, and became a full-blown academic program with its first classes in the Spring term beginning on January 19, 1979. That spring, 503 students enrolled in 25 classes. During the following fall, 1,056 students enrolled in 44 Learn & Shop classes, a 110% increase. As a result, enrollment at IUPUI that fall rose by 4.6% over the Fall, 1978, by far the largest increase on any of the eight campuses of Indiana University. A year later, Fall, 1980, Learn & Shop's 86 sections of classes drew 2,040 students. IUPUI's Learn & Shop Program is innovative in bringing a coordinated program of traditional credit courses to leading department stores at convenient shopping centers in the suburbs of Indianapolis. Why the shopping mall? According to a U.S. News & World Report (September 30, 1974) Americans spend more time at shopping malls than anywhere outside their homes and

Learn & Shop: An innovation in college credit programming

In the spring 1979, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis launched the nation's first Learn & Shop College Credit Program in which college-credit courses are offered in training rooms of major department stores in Indianapolis suburban shopping centers. In the fall, 1980, 2, 040 students are enrolled in 86 courses.

The Rehabilitation of a Central Business District: The Richmond (Indiana) Promenade (III)

The mall layout in the case of the Richmond Promenade is similar to that of a mall center type of shopping center. Unlike the mall center type of shopping center where the foot traffic is directed by the location of the stores at strategic points in the mall, the flow of shoppers on the Richmond Promenade has been directed to some degree by the creation of the pedestrain mall, the location of parking facilities, and the passage ways to the mall from the parking lots. In order to attract shoppers to the mall area, the city officials were successful in having a major department store locate on the mall. In addition, there are clusterings of similar types of retail establishments which have a tendency to attract people because of their ability to offer various lines, styles, and prices. Unlike the new shopping centers, however, some of the characteristics of the downtown area are retained by the clustering of bank headquarters and other financial institutions as well as non-commercial activities. The improvements through the location of retail establishments, along with other features mentioned in previous papers such as the rerouting of traffic, the additional parking, the renovation of buildings, and the construction of the pedestrain mall, played an important role in attracting shoppers back to the downtown area in Richmond.The Richmond Promenade: A Look BackIt is appropriate at this point to review the development and the implementation of the rehabilitation project of the central business district of Richmond, Indiana. The deteriorating condition of the downtown area was a matter of increasing concern for the merchants in the area, but this condition was not sufficient to motivate the first step toward the re-development. As indicated previously, various possibilities were under consideration for the revitalization of the area by the merchants association. But, the disaster of April 6, 1968 in the downtown area advanced the need for redevelopment to the forefront.The acceptance of the perimeter plan as the overall guide was indicative of the size and the types of changes which were to be undertaken in the redevelopment project. The major goals of this plan were to improve the flow of traffic and increase the parking spaces which, of course, the city government accomplished by rerouting the traffic and the construction of parking lots. The blighted conditions were removed through the renovation of the structurally sound buildings. The pedestrain mall further enhanced the attractiveness of the area. The creation of a pleasant park-like situation on the mall was crucial because without it the mall would merely be a path to move from end to the other.One of the objectives of the rehabilitation project for the downtown area was to enhance its ability to attract potential customers through the availability of a wide range of goods and services. The location of a major department store, partially, fulfilled this goal. Also, the clustering of similar types of retail establishments as well as the specialty shops contribated to the return of customers to the downtown area.

Real Estate Financing and the Opportunity for Shopping Center Occupancy

chains more space than really worthwhile. The allocation of large amounts of building space to low-priced national chain operations not only sets a low quality image for the center but the low rentals paid by these chains, together with whatever the anchor department store agrees to pay, dictates the rent structure for the entire center. The presence and advertising power of a major department store tenant is recognized as absolutely essential for the customer drawing power and permanent financing of the center, as well as necessary for the attraction of a complementary assortment of small-space apparel and specialty-line retailers as tenants for the center. However, the developer must make up for the command of low rentals by the largest space-using tenants by charging higher than average rentals to small space tenants. Many otherwise desi able small space retailers cannot realistically consider occupancy under such circumstances. The developer either fails to fill all of the space, or he compensates for his leasing inadequacies by filling the remaining space with an assortment of retail or nonretail tenants

Poliomyelitis Vaccination Campaign in Salt Lake City, Utah

ALMOST 400,000 shots of poliomyelitis vaccine were given in a mass immunization campaign in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1957. From the inception of the campaign, arising from pressures of various civic groups early in 1957, until its end in July of that year, streams of people passed through clinics in schools, churches, department stores, and other places to receive their injections. A total of 116,710 vaccine injections were given at clinics held in 127 schools, 25 churches, and 40 industrial firms, business offices, and stores. In addition, 275,130 injections were given in the offices of private physicians. Altogether, 62 percent of the city's residents were immunized. The Salt Lake County Medical Society sponsored the vaccination program and appointed me as coordinator. Scheduling of clinics for all schools was begun at once through my office. Within 4 weeks all the schools and businesses that sought vaccination for their employees were accommodated. The nurses alnd equipment were supplied by the Salt Lake City and County Health Departments. The first clinics were arranged for 500 employees of a major department store and for a junior hiigh school where two students had died of poliomyelitis in 1956. For the school clinic, the PTA purchased vaccine from a local druggist at the commercial rate until it could be bought at the institutional price directly from drug firms. The second school clinic was sponsored by a local Lion's Club. Newspaper and radio publicity resulted in a crowd of 2,450 persons. The challenge here was to obtain enough syringes so that there would be a separate one for each person. The city health department had only 1,500 syringes. Four hundred more, relics of the poliomyelitis pioneer programs, were found in the basement of the State Capitol. All hospitals were asked to have syringes ready in case of need. Since the second clinic was to last from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m., the first 300 syringes used were cleaned, packed, and rushed to a nearby hospital for autoclaving and were returned for the last hour. The problem of syringes continued to be the knottiest one of all throughout the campaign. Disposable syringes were too expensive: at 18 cents per unit, it would have meant $180 in the waste basket for every 1,000 persons injected. Interchangeable 2 cc. syringes were best. Dr. Hingson's jet-injector, which injects 900 persons per hour would have been ideal, but it was not then available.

The Effect of the War Upon the Distribution System of the Territory of Hawaii

IF THE Territory of Hawaii had been a state in I939, its retail and wholesale trade volume would have outranked that of five other states. During the period I939-45 the retail trade of the Territory increased 232 per cent, while that for the continental United States as a whole increased only 75 per cent. In general, this did not cause any new developments but greatly accelerated trends already existent. It is the purpose of this article to study the changes in the Hawaiian system of distribution concomitant with this increase of trade. Hawaii has a total area of 6,435 square miles; however, because of the volcanic origin of the islands, only about io per cent of the land is arable.2 The arable land consists mostly of coastal strips, inland plateaus, and mountain valleys. Despite this, a significant agricultural economy has developed owing to the extraordinary intensity with which the lands are farmed. Hawaii's chief crops are pineapples and sugar cane, which require a high degree of technology and capital for efficient production. Because of this, agriculture is carried on by corporations operating large plantations These corporations are largely controlled by factor agencies which finance and market the crops. Five such agencies, known locally as the Big Five, have developed their mercantile functions from their origins in plantation and sugar-mill supplies to the point where they dominate the mercantile as well as the agricultural side of the Hawaiian economy. The factor that controlled over 30 per cent of the total sugar production in I9383 also owned the only major department store in the Territory. Racially Hawaii is highly complex.4 Not until late I945 was there a plurality of Caucasians in the Territory (counting civilians only), and this was the result only of the influx of mainland whites for work on the military and naval installations in the Territory. Before this, Japanese (including both citizens and aliens) were in the plurality. The Japanese and Caucasians make up about two-thirds of the population, with the balance being made up of Filipinos, Portuguese, Chinese, Hawaiians (who constitute now less than 5 per cent of the population) and others, including all possible mixtures of the preceding racial groups. The various racial groups came to Hawaii most frequently under contract to work on the plantations. After I The author is an instructor in marketing, De Paul University. He wishes to thank Mr. Torkel Westly, deputy tax commissioner, Territory of Hawaii, whose kind co-operation made possible the collection of basic data for this paper.