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Article: Divergent approaches to personnel: personal service based on the Nordstrom model, or an impersonal, online approach to sales ? Which way to go? Productivity variances reflect an industry where retailers are heading in opposite directions.(The Top 200: RANKED BY EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY)
- Article from:
- Music Trades
- Article date:
- August 1, 2008
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Music Trades Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Discussions of productivity typically conjure up images of factory automation or enormous mainframe computers. In reality, however, retail has experienced some of the most dramatic productivity gains of any industry. The combination of point-of-sale systems, integrated financial management systems, and lean inventory strategies has enabled stores of all sizes to generate more business with fewer man hours. These trends were reflected in the Top 200 where sales-per-employee, the basic measure of productivity, advanced 3.4% to a record $241,447 in 2007. What's particularly noteworthy is that this advance has come at a time when the average unit price of just about every ...