NEW YORK — For years, retailers could afford to be sloppy about running their businesses because customers kept buying.
No more.
Stung by the worry that shoppers — who cut spending by the most dramatic amount in at least 39 years this the holiday season — may not start spending again for a long time, stores are making drastic changes. They are cutting out marginal suppliers, hiring outside experts to keep inventory lean, holding special events for those who are still buying and making extraordinary efforts to gauge customer satisfaction.
The new discipline will be mostly good news for shoppers, who will find stores less cluttered and see an array of products at lower prices, including ordinary groceries and jeans from brands they could once only aspire to.
Of course, the downside is that consumers who want something out of the ordinary may have to look harder. Stores are rooting out offbeat, unpopular colors and styles, which will mean fewer choices.
Sales clerks are also checking back with customers to see if they’re satisfied with their purchases.
“We are in a sea change,” said Millard “Mickey” Drexler, J.Crew’s chairman and chief executive and former chief executive at Gap Inc.
Pricing goods within reach of strapped consumers is also a big focus, given the way nervous consumers have stopped shopping. Same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year, fell 2.3 percent in November and December together, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. And the worsening sales slump in January has many worried about the industry’s prospects over the next few months.
J.Crew is working with its factories to adjust its prices on certain key items such as ballet flats, which now start at $98 rather than $118. It’s also stocking fewer of its high-priced items such as $1,300 leather trench coats. It’s cutting inventory and slashing expenses.
Chief executives for retailers such as Crate &Barrel and J.C. Penney acknowledged during the National Retail Federation meeting this month that they’re navigating new territory, predicting that the fundamental shift by consumers to spend less and save more will linger.
The biggest unknown is when or if shoppers will ever resume spending the way they did when the housing market was booming, credit was easy and jobs were more plentiful.
“Customers wanted and wanted and wanted some more, and we sold and sold and sold some more,” said Burton Tansky, president and chief executive of The Neiman Marcus Group. Now, “frugality is more important.”
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