The winter holidays are still a few months away, but that's not stopping some stores from putting out there Christmas selections early. Game theory can help us understand their pre-emptive behavior.
I know an executive at Nordstrom and they are particularly proud about not starting Christmas before Thanksgiving. Based on your post, Nordstrom must not either a) worry about same store sale discrepancies; or b) are hyper rational. I suppose a third option would be that the clientele at Nordstrom is high end enough not to care about holiday season sales. What do you think explains their approach to holiday time?
My vote is it likely leans toward hyper rationality. I imagine they care about same store sales, but they don't have the number of stores like Walmart and Target do. Their main competitors are likely Neiman Marcus and Saks, so their customers are probably more brand loyal than Target/Walmart when it comes to what's being sold.
I believe there are also really high warehouse/storage costs this year compared to previously, making the alternative of storing the items before hand higher than normal. Not sure if this is part of the early push to get things out on the floor, too?
I know an executive at Nordstrom and they are particularly proud about not starting Christmas before Thanksgiving. Based on your post, Nordstrom must not either a) worry about same store sale discrepancies; or b) are hyper rational. I suppose a third option would be that the clientele at Nordstrom is high end enough not to care about holiday season sales. What do you think explains their approach to holiday time?
My vote is it likely leans toward hyper rationality. I imagine they care about same store sales, but they don't have the number of stores like Walmart and Target do. Their main competitors are likely Neiman Marcus and Saks, so their customers are probably more brand loyal than Target/Walmart when it comes to what's being sold.
I believe there are also really high warehouse/storage costs this year compared to previously, making the alternative of storing the items before hand higher than normal. Not sure if this is part of the early push to get things out on the floor, too?