Brick-and-Mortar being forced to Brick-and-Click

As I sit here, trying to determine how to post an article about something that I know very little about, it occurred to me to just go off of my own experience and what I have seen locally happening because of the booming Globalization of the e-marketplace. I only had to go as far as my resume to see the many companies that I had once worked for that have gone from brick-and-mortar, to brick-and-click, and even transitioned all the way to pure-play e-retailers. One of my first jobs that I had as a teenager was working at Kmart. I remember the Christmas rush, the black Fridays, the craziness that was the toys and electronics department, and for the most part that has all changed. I recently went into the store I used to work at, one of the few remaining in the area after Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2003 and the closures of hundreds of stores. I was shocked to see how quiet, calm and empty it really was, especially for a Saturday afternoon.

While I was there, I ran into the Electronics department manager, who was my manager 10 years ago, and asked her why the store was so empty. She was shocked by my question and said that she was busier than she had ever been. I could see the sweat on her forehead, but did not see a single customer in her department. She then explained that Kmart had recently updated their website and added a “site-to-store” option, where customers would by the merchandise online, and they are able to come into the store mere hours later to pick up the merchandise. They used a system called mygofer which is basically an order fulfillment site.

I went home shortly after that and started researching Kmart and their bankruptcy and the reason for it, etc. and I came across an article from 2003 on www.abcnews.go.com. The article, which can be found here, was about the bankruptcy and it had a quote from Howard Nemiroff, professor of finance at Long Island University, where he stated the following in regards to how Kmart can get back on track, “Trim the fat. Try to get back on track. Try to steal some ideas from Wal-Mart or from their competitors to see how they can service the consumers better,” and that is exactly what they did. While the company eventually merged with Sears and they are doing much better than they were, they are still years behind the curve of other companies that jumped on the Globalization market much sooner.

Because of Globalization, and having to compete with brick-and-click juggernauts like Wal-Mart, thousands of people lost their jobs, and a company was changed forever.