Category Killers: The Retail Revolution and Its Impact on Consumer Culture

In the Introduction, Robert Spector characterizes category killers as "the most disruptive concept in retailing" because "their goal is to dominate the category [e.g. toys, office supplies, home improvement] and kill the competition - whether it be mom-and-pop stores, smaller regional chains, or general merchandise stores that cannot compete on price and/or location." Spector notes that category killers "have helped to expand and upscale the 'mass market' by aggressively driving down the prices of goods and services." That was precisely Charles Lazarus' pricing strategy when he adopted the supermarket model and opened the first discount toy store in 1958, offering a wide variety of toys at 20-50% lower prices. Lazarus was the founder of a children's furniture store that became Toys "R" Us and is credited with establishing the first "category killer." Spector carefully organizes his material within three Parts. First, in Chapters 1-3, he provides an "explanation of category killers and where they fit in the evolution of modern retailing." Next, in Chapters 4-7, he explains "how and why these retailers have come to dominate their categories." Finally, in Chapters 8 & 9, he examines the "category killers' need to expand their reach to urban, suburban, and rural areas, and the challenges they face in maintaining their competitive edge, both in their ability to grow and in their dexterity in fending off challengers." Spector acknowledges that a discussion of the transformation of consumer culture would be incomplete without considering the impact of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and Costco because "they take huge bites out of category killers." Today, Wal-Mart sells more toys than does Toys "R" Us and Costco sells more books than does Barnes & Noble. One of the several reasons that I think so highly of this book is that Spector provides a context, indeed an historical frame-of-reference, within which be examines with rigor and eloquence a process of natural selection in the retail industry since the 1950s. He helps his reader to understand how category killers such as Toys "R" Us, Korvette, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Home Depot, Lowe's, Staples, Office Depot, PETCO, PETsMART (which "eschews the term `category killer'"), Circuit City, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, K-mart (with the hyphen later dropped), and warehouse clubs (e.g. Price Club, Costco, and Sam's Club) established and then sustained dominance, at least for a period of time, only to find themselves challenged or, in some instances, eliminated by a new generation of competitors. "A constant theme of this book is that retail and consumer culture are always evolving. Retailing in a free market is always fluid. Concepts, locations, population migrations, tastes, brands, pricing, and executive leadership are forever in motion." Spector then goes on to suggest that in retailing, "you get a new report card every day" and "past performance is no guarantee of future success." What is intriguing to me is what

In a well-written and researched book, Spectre provides a good understanding of the trends impacting retailing and how those changes in retailing impacts our society as a whole. The book is written in three parts - part one providing the background and history of major companies defined as category killers (includes the Walmarts, kmarts, borders, etc and Starbucks!). Here the information contained, though well presented, is essentially nothing new. If this is your first book on retail industry, there is much to be gained from the first part which provides a succinct summary on the origins of the major players in retail industry. You will learn snippets such as Borders was originally part of Kmart and so on...Part two talks more on the trends impacting the industry and how it has evolved, while the third part provides some insights on how things will emerge from now.... The discussions from Chapter 7 onwards is very insightful and provides a good account of what can be expected from the reatiling giants. Discussion on how the companies try to expand to non-US markets and analysis on some of the failures (HomeDepot in Europe, for example) is particularly engaging and informative. Overall, the book provides a reasonably good account of the future, an excellent analysis of current trends, and a decent summary of the background. Written in fairly simple language and style, the author manages to keep it entertaining and engaging. A good read.

Recently I needed a set of tires. I made the rounds of the traditional tire chains in my small town. The quotes from the three stores were just about identical at $600. I went to WalMart -- $400. Same mileage guarantee, same 'we fix flats and rotate,' and a warranty that was truly nationwide. Please explain why I shouldn't have bought the tires I needed at WalMart. Category Killers are those giant specialized stores that are wiping out the competition in the areas in which they have chosed to compete. Toy-R-Us for instance has basically wiped out the KB toy chain that had before done a lot to wipe out the mom & pop toy stores. Category Killers operate in many, if not most, of the traditional specialty marketing area. You know their names PetSmart, Barnes & Noble, Home Depot, and many more. This has created a change in the way we shop, the way taxes are collected, the way producers market and position their products. Of late there is some backlash against the big stores, particularily WalMart as it's the biggest, some towns don't want them, some lawsuits have been files, the INS has raided a few stores for using illegal workers. But $600 over here, $400 over there. Category killers are what's happening in retail, to the dismay of many, and to the benefit of consumers. In this book Mr. Spector uses his background in retailing to examine the current revolution in retail -- yes, it's just the current revolution, there have been many before such as the construction of malls, and to make some predictions about the future of retail and the consumer culture. For what it's worth, I think he is dead right.