MERCHANDISING AND STRATEGY CHANGES
A glance at retailers that are restrategizing
Posted January 2006
McDonalds: Will that be paper or plastic?
Looking to cash in on the growing popularity of gift cards, McDonald's has started to sell Arch Cards. The restaurant chain offers the ability to load up cards in denominations of $5, $10, $25 and $50. Gift certificates, the paper equivalent of the swipe cards, are not going away.
Fast food restaurants are dependent on the speed by which people can move through the line. By accepting gift cards, the restaurant dispenses with the need to shuffle bills and coins back and forth with the consumer, thus reducing the transaction time. Through gift giving, the cards offer McDonald's an opportunity to win over a new customer that may not have recently visited the restaurant.
Nationwide, gift cards purchases for all stores total $55 billion to $70 billion a year, according to Dan Horne, professor of marketing at Providence College.
Retail health therapy comes to Bartell Drugs
Bartell Drugs has teamed with MinuteClinic to offer in-store diagnosis, prescriptions and treatment for common health ailments.
The no-appointment-necessary visits are attended to by a Nurse Practitioner qualified to treat many wellness issues, including strep throat and earaches, bronchial infections and pink eye. When patients' problems go beyond the scope of the mini clinic, staff members refer people to local physicians or emergency rooms. Children younger than 18 months are not treated at the health centers. Prices range from $30 to $110, with most treatments ringing in at $59. MinuteClinics don't charge when no treatment is provided.
Four locations, in Seattle, Bellevue, Sammamish and Renton, offer the medical services. Most visits are handled within 15 minutes, and some insurance is accepted.
Cruising Hawaii, Norwegian Style
Norwegian Cruise Lines is moving to lock up the vast majority of the cruise line business sailing to ports throughout the Hawaiian Islands by committing three year-round vessels to the island chain.
The cruise line started its serious commitment to Hawaii in 2004, with the 1,900-passenger Pride of Aloha. Last year, the 2,100-passenger Pride of America began offering three week-long itineraries with Honolulu serving as the port of call. A third ship, the Pride of Hawaii, will take inaugural voyages in April 2006 with up to 2,400 cruisers.
Each of the ships is U.S. flagged, allowing them to do away with the requirement of docking in a foreign port during their voyages but requiring adherence to American employment rules.
All ships will allow vacationers to book tee time on some of Hawaii's highly scenic, year-round golf courses. A survey by the Hawaii Convention and Visitor's Bureau reveals that two-thirds of Hawaii's visitors choose to golf when on vacation there and three quarters are likely to play the courses again.
From around Western Washington, 190,000 adults visited Hawaii in the past year. The hot spot has experienced a healthy resurgence since the travel slump resulting from 9/11.