Retailers Cut Back on Choices; 'We Don't Need Three Types of Red'

[left-of-center2012]

Coach is cutting its handbag styles by half. Bed Bath & Beyond BBBY -0.93% is reducing its can opener selection by two-thirds. Kohl’s KSS -2.61% is culling its towel offerings by nearly a fifth.

Sheena Iyengar, a Columbia Business School professor co-authored a 2000 study titled “When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?” In one example, the study found that people bought more jam when they were shown fewer choices. Only 3% of consumers who were shown 24 types of jams made a purchase. The purchase rate increased to nearly 30% when consumers were shown just six varieties.

Consumer-product companies like PepsiCo Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co. lately have reduced the varieties of toilet paper, soda, packaged foods and other products they sell. Those moves largely stemmed from supply shortages during the pandemic, although some companies now plan to make the reductions permanent.

In industry parlance, that is known as buying narrow and deep. It is in keeping with the so-called 80-20 rule. Roughly 20% of a company’s products account for 80% of its sales, Columbia’s Sheena Iyengar, a Columbia Business School professor said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/retailers-cut-back-on-choices-we-dont-need-three-types-of-red-11605934806

[Sherman A1]

1. Long overdue

A lot of the so called choices are simply self competitive products designed to capture more shelf space in an attempt to reduce the shelf available for another company’s brands.

Retail was already under significant pressure to change how it operates, the pandemic simply accelerated what was already coming.

[dem4decades]

5. The best store in the world has limited items, thanks Costco.

[BComplex]

2. That is exactly why I stopped buying Pantene shampoo/conditioner stuff. So friggin' many

choices, I couldn't find the old one that I liked after they renamed it to something specific that distinguished it from about 85 other Pantene shampoos. Screw that.

[Patterson]

3. They bought more because they were stocking up.

[luvs2sing]

4. When my regular store started doing this, I switched stores.

A lot of the things they discontinued were things I regularly bought. Things like dried mushrooms to make mushroom soup or anchovies for pasta puttanesca. I noticed the things they cut back on were mostly “real” food. The aisles of canned or boxed prepared foods were still as full and, while they no longer carried any brand of orange marmalade, they still had five brands of grape jelly and at least as many different varieties of mac and cheese.

[Midnight Writer]

6. It is often the "niche" items that attracts a customer to a particular store.

For example, I drive to a bookstore 60 miles away just because they carry a couple of publications that I can't find anywhere else, including Amazon. While I am there, I often buy several items in addition to ones I am looking for.

I predict this will drive more shoppers to online shops where they can find unique items.