On Mon, 3 Mar 2008 18:38:45 -0600, "HeyBub" <heybub@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>Robert wrote:
>>
>> Pop-Tarts. Wal-Mart studied this and found people do not stock up on
>> bread and milk, as commonly thought, they stock up on beer and
>> Pop-Tarts. In particular, strawberry.
>
>As I recall the story, their computers showed that the stores RAN OUT of
>Strawberry PopTarts and beer. People did stock up on necessities, but the
>computer had already accounted for bottled water, milk, Pampers, etc.,
but
>somehow overlooked other necessities (like PopTarts and beer).
>
>Meanwhile, additional fleets of 18-wheelers were dispatched to rush
>emergency supplies of 'Tarts and Suds (that would be a swell name for a
>tavern), to the afflicted areas.
>
>I guess that's one of the nice things about Walmart: they're so large
they
>can instantly move over 200 tons of Poptarts to the devastated areas when
it
>takes FEMA months to deliver a trailer.
The story is Wal-Mart has a new invention, nay make that "data-driven
weapon", called
Predictive Technology, heretofore unknown to retailers. Target is green
with envy. Publix
and Wal-Mart are scratching their heads in bewilderment.
Before long, they'll be able to PREDUCT demand for Christmas trees a month
early, instead
of "waiting for it to happen." The secret is terrabytes of data circling
around in the
network. No wonder the network is so clogged.
What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits (CONSTANCE L. HAYS, 11/14/04,
NY Times)
HURRICANE FRANCES was on its way, barreling across the Caribbean,
threatening a direct
hit on Florida's Atlantic coast. Residents made for higher ground, but far
away, in
Bentonville, Ark., executives at Wal-Mart Stores decided that the
situation offered a
great opportunity for one of their newest data-driven weapons, something
that the company
calls predictive technology.
A week ahead of the storm's landfall, Linda M. Dillman, Wal-Mart's
chief information
officer, pressed her staff to come up with forecasts based on what had
happened when
Hurricane Charley struck several weeks earlier. Backed by the trillions of
bytes' worth of
shopper history that is stored in Wal-Mart's computer network, she felt
that the company
could "start predicting what's going to happen, instead of waiting for it
to happen," as
she put it.
The experts mined the data and found that the stores would indeed need
certain
products - and not just the usual flashlights. "We didn't know in the past
that strawberry
Pop-Tarts increase in sales, like seven times their normal sales rate,
ahead of a
hurricane," Ms. Dillman said in a recent interview. "And the pre-hurricane
top-selling
item was beer."
Thanks to those insights, trucks filled with toaster pastries and
six-packs were soon
speeding down Interstate 95 toward Wal-Marts in the path of Frances. Most
of the products
that were stocked for the storm sold quickly, the company said.
http://brothersjuddblog.com/archives/2004/11/you_call_that_a_disaster.html
I wondered what drinks and snacks would be best sellers in other parts of
the counrty.
New York: grapefruit-Campari float With organic green tea, bagels with
lox
San Francisco: bellinis (champagne & peach schnaps), sourdough bread
Milwaukee: Pabst Blue Ribbon, brats
New Orleans: rainstorms, beignets
Houston: fresh lime juice & top shelf tequila, falafel
Dallas: wine coolers, Krispy Kreme
Austin: Lone Star beer, nachos
Boston: Cape cods, Necco wafers
Philadephia: Yuengling beer, Tastykake, tomato pie
Chicago: mojitos, paczki with rose filling, polish sausage with onions and
peppers
Atlanta: Coca-cola, boiled peanuts
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