Fortune magazine focuses on the optimization -- or sometimes rationalization -- strategy being adopted by Target and others:
The discount retailer, the third largest U.S. store chain, is deploying workers to pore through the many categories of products its sells to see how many different formats and pack sizes of products like bottled water or soap it really needs to stock in its stores.
For Target Chief Executive Brian Cornell, it’s a matter of being more efficient in what are staples for the retailer so it can focus more on categories it has made a priority, like wellness, stylish home goods, apparel, and baby products...
The store will start by removing some items at one location, and then roll out to other stores in its 1,800-store fleet if it doesn’t face customer feedback. “We are not taking a blunt instrument approach to this,” Cornell said.
The efforts mirror those of Walmart WMT 1.65% which has also grappled with out-of-stocks and wants to reduce the expense and time of having workers constantly restock shelves. By October, Walmart had eliminated about 15% of its assortment by doing things like offering a ranch dressing in one size rather than six, the Wall Street Journalreported at the time.
Many consumer and packaged goods companies seem to have been expecting this development. Former Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley told fellow industry leaders last June that consumers are put off by too much choice.
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