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PREFACE:

Preface

Now that we have entered the new millennium, it has become quite apparent that the retailer's goal to remain as profitable as possible will be a difficult task. Not only are they faced with greater competition than ever before, but the competitive nature of the game comes from arenas other than the brick and mortar companies. They are now faced with an enormous number of off-site businesses such as the catalog operations, home shopping networks, and Internet Web sites that target consumers. The vast majority of the merchants who had heretofore concentrated on their store operations, have also increased their own attention to some of these techniques in the quest to expand their organizations.

Whatever the situation, it is the buyer who has to expand his or her scope of activities in order to properly address the needs of those using these interactive services. While buying has always been a difficult task to perform, the outlook seems to be more complex than ever before. Adding to the broader marketplaces, the buyer has to understand the complexities of the NAFTA and GATT pacts, global merchandise sourcing, the broader demands of product development, and the importance of continuous communication with those on the selling floors so that profits will be maximized.

This edition of Retail Buying has been extensively rewritten to bring a better understanding to the importance that retail buyers play in making certain that their companies receive their fair share of consumers' purchases. Not only has almost every page that remains from the previous edition been amended, but the chapters have been reordered and two new chaptersadded.

New to this edition is Chapter 3, "Buying for Off-Site Retail Outlets," which fully examines the interactive nature of retailing. Also new is Chapter 14, "Disseminating Product Information to Store Personnel," which addresses the need for such involvement as well as the techniques used to achieve these goals. The chapters that deal separately with the many aspects of buying abroad have been reorganized into one, which has been expanded to include new areas of importance to this method of merchandise acquisition. Numerous new visuals have replaced many of those in the previous edition, and additional Retail Buying Focuses have been added, making it more appropriate for the new millennium.

While all of the changes and additions have made the sixth edition of Retail Buying a more complete example of the buyer's role in retailing, it in no way diminishes the importance of some of the concepts that have been addressed in previous editions. Whatever has been considered imperative to profitable retail buying has been retained.

Like the editions that preceded this one, many pedagogical approaches remain, with the bulk of the information inherent in them, updated. Sections devoted to Language of the Trade, Summaries of Key Points, Review Questions, and Case Problems are still featured at the conclusion of each chapter. Each is either entirely new or updated to reflect current practices in the field. The Glossary, at the end of the book, has been significantly rewritten to include all of the new terms with which buyers must be familiar.

Important to this new edition is a series of retail buying videos that have been written and produced by the authors. They include a host of topics ranging from Planning the Purchase and Visiting the Marketplace to the Retail Merchandising Mathematical Concepts. Each is an excellent tool for the introduction of specific topics as well as for the reinforcement of buying principles and practices.

Accompanying this book is an updated instructor's manual that features solutions to the review questions and case problems, as well as a new set of sample exams.

With all of these up-to-date features and additional educational materials, Retail Buying is the most comprehensive book on the subject in the marketplace.