Why Category Killers Can’t Survive

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本播客由宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院为您提供。 （易读版本）这个播客是由宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院为您带来的。

Well we know how retail has changed in the last few years. The digital landscape shifting the way that many people shop. Before that we were an economy that had lots of mom and pop shops. But then the so-called category killers popped up. These were stores that provided all the items we might need for a certain category. Toys are us being example. Radio Shack, Blockbuster as well. They were all in that category. And of course they also are having common that they are all gone. They have bathroom beyond the latest category killer. Simulie to go away after filing for bankruptcy last week.

我们都知道零售业在过去几年发生了很大变化。数字化的浪潮改变了很多人购物的方式。在此之前，我们的经济中有很多小商铺。但是后来出现了所谓的类别杀手。这些商店提供了我们可能需要的某个类别的所有商品。像Toys R Us就是一个例子。还有Radio Shack和Blockbuster也是。它们都属于同一个类别。当然，它们都有一个共同点，那就是已经消失了。最新的类别杀手对它们产生了冲击，类似于上周提交破产申请后消失了的Sears。

John Zhang, professor of marketing here at the Wharton School joins us to take a look at what happened with all of these companies. John great to talk to you again. It's been a while. Thanks for your time. Yeah thank you Dan for having me. It's very very informative to show.

约翰·张，沃顿商学院市场营销教授，加入我们一起看看这些公司发生了什么。约翰，很高兴再次与您交谈。已经有一段时间了，感谢您抽出时间。是的，谢谢您邀请我，这真的很有益处。

Well and I think this is interesting and we know that you know retail is obviously something that kind of changes with the you know the developments that we see in technology and some of the elements in our culture. But these were companies that really it seemed like at the time when they were popping up had strength and would be around for a long period of time. Obviously I don't think they could expect to see some of the things that occurred. But from your perspective what were the common elements of why companies like Toys R Us Radio Shack Blockbuster all went under? Well I think the concept of category killer really is the Pase mostly and for a large number of reasons. I think that the probably the most important reason is the fact that e-commerce is growing very very fast. You can imagine that the advantage of a category killer is that it has a lot of excuse for a category. If you want to if you care to buy in that particular category you can pretty much find anything you want and in those stores. And for those customers who care about the product choices you're like a kid in a candy store. However if you look at the e-commerce operator like Amazon and they can have an infinite number of the SQ's in your product category. In fact in all product categories you can imagine that you really lose a huge advantage in that regard. And most importantly I think during the pandemic you notice that in fact that people are trained to buy online and so that probably not going to change for a long time.

嗯，我认为这很有趣，我们知道零售业显然是随着技术发展和我们文化中的一些元素而变化的。但这些公司当时似乎非常强大，并且能够存在很长一段时间。显然，我不认为他们能预料到会发生一些事情。但从你的角度来看，为什么像Toys R Us、Radio Shack、Blockbuster这样的公司都会倒闭呢？我认为"类别杀手"的概念在其中起了主要作用，原因有很多。我认为最重要的原因可能是电子商务的快速增长。你可以想象，类别杀手的优势在于它在该领域拥有大量的产品选择。如果你想购买某个类别的商品，你几乎可以在这些店铺找到你想要的任何东西。对于那些关心产品选择的顾客来说，就像在糖果店里的孩子一样。然而，如果你看看像亚马逊这样的电子商务运营商，他们可以拥有无限多的产品类别。实际上，在所有产品类别中，你可以想象到你在这方面失去了巨大的优势。最重要的是，我认为在疫情期间，你会注意到人们已经习惯了在线购物，这种情况可能不会在很长一段时间内改变。

So then you mentioned Amazon why is it then that companies like Walmart and Target are seemingly being able to kind of walk that path and still be successful offering a wide range of merchandise. And maybe it's because they're not doing it in one particular area. Well relative to the two bad path and beyond obviously Walmart has huge advantage too. There is a four category retailer. You can imagine that they can easily cherry pick the fact moving products in any product category and which is something that the bad and bad and beyond cannot do. And they basically have to carry slow moving and also fast moving as Q's and which of us means that there are costs on every issue is going to be higher.

那么你提到了亚马逊，为什么沃尔玛和塔吉特等公司似乎能够走这条路并且仍然能够成功地提供广泛的商品呢？也许是因为他们没有集中在某一个特定领域。相对于百思买显然沃尔玛也有巨大的优势。他们是一个涵盖四个品类的零售商。你可以想象他们可以轻松选取任意一个产品类别中的热销产品，而这正是百思买所做不到的。百思买基本上不得不携带滞销和畅销产品，这意味着他们在每个问题上的成本都会更高。

So should bed, bad and beyond have been able to recognize what was going on with the other kind of companies in that sector and been able to adjust and still be able to you know be a viable option these days instead of going into bankruptcy. Well some category pillars are in fact still viable right. If you look at a home depot you look at the best buy for instance where as a consumer when you purchase products you do require a lot of different services, devices and the advice from the sales people and so on and so forth. And those categories can still survive. I think to me it's really surprising that the bad and bad and beyond has been hanging in there for as long as they did and in fact it has been swimming upstream and for a long while. And I guess when you can have another company like a Walmart like an Amazon like a Target be able to provide a lot of the items that would be in a bad bath and beyond and you can still go get your groceries and you can still go get clothes and you know there's so many other options it makes it that much more easy and palatable probably for the consumer in general.

所以床上用品、坏的和超越公司应该能够意识到同一行业中其他类型的公司正在发生什么，并能够做出调整，仍然能够成为现如今的可行选择，而不是破产。嗯，某些类别的支柱仍然是可行的。如果你看看家得宝、百思买之类的商家，作为消费者购买产品时，你确实需要许多不同的服务、设备和销售人员的建议等等。这些类别仍然可以生存下去。我觉得令人惊讶的是，床上用品、坏的和超越公司能够坚持了这么长时间，事实上它们一直在逆流而上。而且，当你可以像沃尔玛、亚马逊、塔吉特这样的公司能够提供床上用品、坏的和超越公司的许多商品时，你仍然可以买到食品和服装，你知道还有很多其他选择，这对于消费者来说可能更加容易和可接受。

Absolutely I think a Walmart is already doing that. So they really cherry pick out a lot of fast moving categories and that bad and bad bath and beyond the also carries. What do you think it means then for the lows and the home depots of the world? Are they in a spot right now where they should feel pretty good about their category about what they bring to the retail segment? I'm not sure they feel pretty good. I think that probably they're not sweating as much for sure and I think that in those product categories you can imagine that if you are the contractor you go there early in the morning and pick up all the things you need and you can actually finish your job on the day during the day. I think that they do provide some very valuable services and for best buy I can imagine that if for the electronic goods become very standardized you don't have a constant stream of new products that come into the marketplace where you do require a lot of services from the sales people I think they're going to really really sweat.

我认为沃尔玛已经在做这个了。所以他们确实非常挑选热销的类别，还有久久超市和Beyond居家用品店也在销售这些类别的产品。那么你认为对于洛ews和Home Depot来说，这意味着什么呢？他们是否应该对自己所提供的产品类别以及在零售领域的地位感到非常满意？我不确定他们是否感到非常满意。我认为他们肯定没有那么担心，而且对于那些产品类别，你可以想象一下，如果你是承包商，你可以在早上早早去那里拿到你需要的一切，而且你可以在一天内完成工作。我认为他们确实提供了一些非常有价值的服务，而对于百思买，我可以想象，如果电子产品变得非常标准化，市场上没有不断涌现新产品的情况，这些销售人员的服务就不再需要了，我认为他们会非常担心。

So as you mentioned this is a byproduct of the growth of e-commerce which I guess we expect is just going to continue to grow in terms of the importance that it has in our day-to-day thought process around shopping. Absolutely. I think the pandemic has certainly helped their process. I think if you look at the category killer there isn't some other structural issues too and for them to buy the product at low cost then they really have to do global sourcing. You notice that in fact that supply chain disruptions in geopolitics all those things will come into play and to the decrement of the bad, bad and beyond. So was the pandemic then really one of the biggest challenges that these types of companies and really retail in general has had to deal with in the last so many decades because of all of those factors you just laid out? Absolutely. I think that retailers always struggle and I think that that struggle will continue while into the future.

正如你所提到的，这是电子商务增长的副产品，我猜我们预计在日常购物思维中，它的重要性只会不断增长。完全正确。我认为疫情确实有助于他们的进程。我认为如果你看看这个综合类别，还有其他结构性问题，对于他们以低成本购买产品，他们真的必须进行全球采购。你会发现在供应链中的中断、地缘政治等因素都会产生影响，对于bad, bad and beyond来说，这会是一个损害。那么，疫情是否真的是这些公司乃至整个零售业在过去几十年中面临的最大挑战之一，因为你刚刚提到的所有因素？完全正确。我认为零售商总是面临困境，而且我认为这种困境将继续存在于未来。

Is there something you think we can take from the failure of Bed Bath and Beyond for the retail sector moving forward? Some nugget that we've learned that will be important even for the companies like the Amazon's of the world. When you know it has been a mystery and in turning for the scholars in the study and in the retaining industry and there is this concept of this so-called will for retaining. You notice that in fact a lot of like what you were saying during the introduction there are a lot of retailers that come in with a new concept and a new format and they generate a lot of customers and they eventually need that of course they have to raise the prices and to cover for their costs and so on and so forth. And then of course the eventually they have to go out and some other new format of what retailers will come in. I think that that process probably will continue because the economy needs the retailers and the customers need the retailers and retailers will be in the marketplace for a long time but I'm not sure if Bed Bath and Beyond and stores like this will stay in the marketplace for a long time.

对于未来的零售业，你认为我们能从床浴及超退款的失败中学到些什么呢？一些我们已经学到的关键点，甚至对于像亚马逊这样的公司也很重要。我们知道，这一直都是学者们在研究和零售业中迷惑不解的问题，即零售业的意愿。你可能会注意到，实际上很多零售商以一种新概念和新形式进入市场，吸引了大量顾客，但最终却不得不提价以弥补成本等开支。然后必然会有其他新形式的零售商进入市场。我认为这个过程可能会继续，因为经济需要零售商，顾客也需要零售商，零售商将在市场上存在很长时间，但我不确定床浴及类似商店是否能长时间留在市场上。

Amazon is obviously the larger scale example of e-commerce of a company that really does make its day to day success on what people see online but what about smaller e-commerce ventures that are to a degree their own kind of category killer. Can they survive in an online atmosphere longer term because of how strong e-commerce is right now? I think so. I think that really depends on what they do. The retailing industry is so big. It really kind of accommodates large number for retailers and Amazon is not going to be able to take everything away from everybody. So which means that in this industry obviously that if you pay attention to the marketplace, you pay attention to customer demand and you pay attention to the shifting behavior on the part of the consumers, you will do well. At least for a while.

亚马逊显然是电子商务公司的典型例子，日常的成功完全依赖于人们在网上的观看。但对于规模较小的电子商务企业呢，它们能否在当前如此强大的电商环境中长期存活呢？我认为是可以的。这主要取决于它们的经营策略。零售行业非常庞大，足够容纳大量零售商，亚马逊不可能把一切都从其他人手中夺走。因此，在这个行业中，如果你关注市场动向、顾客需求以及消费者行为的变化，你就能做得不错，至少在一段时间内是如此。

What do you think went wrong with Bed Bath and Beyond in your opinion? I think it was just fluctuating that category killer concept is just not going to work in the modern days with the e-commerce around. And not only that your cost is high and also that in fact that you don't really have as many choices as what Amazon can provide and most importantly that the new generation of people for instance they actually are very content with the virtual consumption. They just basically want to do the internet surfing and they want to do the gaming and they want to do social media and because of all that and they just don't have a strong sense of possession as the older generations used to have. So given that you can imagine that you really need to have that many choices for your bed and the bath and the beyond.

在你的观点中，你认为Bed Bath and Beyond出了什么问题？我认为它只是波动不定，这种专供某一类商品的概念在现代的电子商务时代已经行不通了。而且你们的成本高，并且事实上你们提供的选择比亚马逊要少得多，最重要的是，新一代的人实际上对虚拟消费非常满意。他们基本上只想上网冲浪，玩游戏，使用社交媒体，因为这些原因，他们对拥有物的观念并不像老一辈人那样强烈。因此，考虑到这一点，你可以想象你真的需要有很多选择，包括床上用品和浴室用品等等。

There's a lot of discussion as well John about the approach that Bed Bath and Beyond had or realistically didn't have in the online space to begin with. Could they have adapted and survived with a greater online presence or was the physical structure that they had with a lot of property, a lot of locations around the country was that kind of the news around the neck that was really going to bring them down.

关于Bed Bath and Beyond在线业务方面的做法（或实际上没有做法）存在很多讨论。他们是否能够适应并在线生存下来，或者他们拥有的大量房产、分布在全国各地的门店是否成为了真正拖累他们的累赘。

Well there is an article published by the knowledge of the Wharton and in the past week on that particular topic. Obviously Bed Bath and Beyond has done a lot of things trying to stay in the business for a longer period of time and apparently they have failed. And there are lots lots of reasons there but to me I think that no matter what you do there it doesn't seem to be the case that you can actually rescue a company like that. And I imagine on board with the board for the Tuesday morning that also declared bankruptcy recently and it's really sad to see a great concept.

嗯，有一篇由沃顿商学院发表的文章，在过去一周中讨论了这个特定话题。显然，Bed Bath and Beyond已经尽力想要在业界存活更久的时间，但显然他们失败了。尽管有很多原因，但我认为无论你做什么，似乎都无法拯救这样的公司。我还想象着最近宣布破产的Tuesday morning公司的董事会，看到一个伟大的概念的失败真是令人伤心。

The concept at one point was loved by the consumers and goes away. And it's somebody because the customer shopping behaviors have changed and the whole retaining environment is very different and just very difficult for them to keep their head above the water now. So what's the advice from your expertise that you send out to companies who are trying to deal with these same issues right now?

这个概念曾经受到消费者的喜爱，但现在逐渐失去了市场。这是因为顾客的购物行为发生了变化，整个保持市场占有环境也变得非常不同，对于这些公司来说，要维持经营变得非常困难。那么，作为专家，您会给那些正在处理同样问题的公司提出什么建议呢？

Well pay attention to customers, pay attention to all this shift in consumer behavior. And I think that that probably is what a marketing professor can tell firms.

请注意顾客，关注消费者行为的变化。我认为这可能是一个市场营销教授可以告诉企业的事情。

John, always great to have you with us on the show. Thanks very much for your time today. Thank you for talking to me. Thank you.

约翰，很高兴你能参加我们的节目。非常感谢你今天抽出时间。谢谢你和我交谈。非常感谢。

John Zhang who is a marketing professor here at the Wharton School. To keep engaged with Wharton Business Daily and other Wharton School shows, visit businessradio.worton.upen.edu.

约翰·张（John Zhang）是沃顿商学院的市场营销教授。如果想要了解更多有关沃顿商学院的商业广播以及其他沃顿商学院的节目，请访问businessradio.worton.upen.edu，保持与我们的节目接触。