Johnson's Randy Allen tells USA Today why retailers are nervous to NOT discount

12/15/2010 12:36:00 PM

Allen says that despite an increasing desire to shop, customers know to continue to look for sales

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday, Dec. 14 that retail sales were up just 0.8% in November, but department stores saw 2.8 percent gains and specialty stores increased 2.7 percent.  A USAToday report (Dec. 15) looked at why retailers still feel the need to discount and reached out to retail experts, including Johnson's Randy Allen, associate dean for Corporate Relations & Marketing for the answers.

Story excerpt:
Retailers also know that consumers are trained to look for sales and will often go elsewhere if they don't see a price cut. "It's extremely hard to change consumer mind-sets once you've educated them," says Randy Allen, who teaches marketing and strategy at the Johnson School at Cornell University.

Allen, a former Kmart executive and retail consultant at Deloitte, says grocery stores and some department stores have gotten people used to "high-low pricing," where products are temporarily discounted and then returned to the original price.





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