Adding to Kmart's woes are stealth competitors Target and Wal-Mart that feature newer, larger stores, which give the perception of better-quality merchandise.
The first grade is lower quality merchandise, which Li said tends to be distributed domestically or exported to other developing markets in Africa and Latin America.
One strategy some retailers have taken is to buy lower quality merchandise at a very low price point and then mark it down slightly, she says.
Outlet stores, back in the day, were located in a less glamorous part of town and were typically large, mostly unattractive warehouses filled with defective or second-quality merchandise.
Drexel was creating the best-quality merchandise for that marketplace.
Around that time, the cutlers claimed that "foreigners" were largely to blame for poor quality merchandise: "When it is remembered that a 'foreigner' was not simply an alien but anyone, Londoner or otherwise, who was not free of the City - a freedom gained through membership of a mistery - the extent of their power to control the trade will be appreciated, " adds Girtin.
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His offerings at that time, and still the case today, were high quality fashion merchandise.
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And this race to the bottom line price may have led many retailers to sacrifice the very features that differentiated themselves in the marketplace to begin with, such as product quality, merchandise selection, and customer service.
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No matter what we're shopping for, we can now select from a mind-boggling array of high-quality, reasonably priced merchandise.
The fact is, companies that play it fast-and-loose with one area of their operations--like financial reporting--are probably inclined to do the same in areas near and dear to shoppers' hearts--like product quality, truth in advertising and merchandise returns policies.
The company provides customers with a focused selection of high-quality, active-oriented, fashion and fashion basic merchandise at compelling values.
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It's true that Hong Kong's back streets and bazaars are loaded with cheap merchandise, but most of it is counterfeit or copycat products of suspicious origin and questionable quality.
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