Emporium Luggage

© 2014 Society for Marketing Advances. All rights reserved. Permissions: www.copyright.com ISSN 1052–8008 (print) / ISSN 2153–9987 (online) DOI: 10.2753/MER1052-8008240305 In October 2010, Phil Wein, president of Emporium Luggage, was looking for ways to expand his retail luggage operation. Like many firms in the luggage industry, his leisure travel segment had been hurt by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which forced several luggage retailers to retrench. More recently, the U.S. recession that started in 2008, and the resulting higher unemployment rate, had cut down on business travel. Hence, his core business customers had reduced their spending on travel. Furthermore, the neighborhoods that Emporium Luggage had successfully serviced in the past were changing. Reduced housing prices meant that older workers were “retiring in place,” that is, staying in their homes after their working days were over, and younger, working families were not moving in to replace the retirees. Accordingly, Emporium had reduced its retail presence to its three most profitable locations. However, there were still opportunities to investigate. The greater metropolitan area continued to expand away from the city as businesses sought lower land prices and access to employees living in the bedroom communities surrounding the city. As a result, Mr. Wein thought he might have an opportunity to better serve those customers with a new retail location. Like all physical retailers, Emporium Luggage had lost customers to Internet-based retailers, including Amazon. Wein had countered by adding two Internet stores, which were not branded as Emporium. These stores offered similar luggage items but not the same merchandise mix as Emporium. Wein considered opening a fourth physical, or “bricks-and-mortar,” store to be located closer to potential customers.