February 26, 2009 - Modern Distribution Management

February 26, 2009

For Grainger, Product Expansion Will Continue to Be A Priority

Chicago-based facilities maintenance distributor Grainger won’t be slowing its product expansion anytime soon. According to Fred Costello, vice president-product management, the strategy is a priority going forward.
 
This year, Grainger’s catalog is 64,000 SKUs thicker, or 33% larger than last year’s. Grainger now has 240,000 SKUs available in print, and 300,000 on its Web site. The goal of the product expansion is to fill gaps in its already broad offering and reach out to new customers, in an effort to become a "one-stop shop," Costello tells me.
 
MDM Publisher Tom Gale recently wrote in the Feb. 25 issue of MDM that Grainger has a history of building market share in downturns; Grainger’s …

For Grainger, Product Expansion Will Continue to Be A Priority Read More »

Fourth-Quarter GDP Fell 6.2% in Latest Estimates

Real gross domestic product – the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the U.S. – decreased at an annual rate of 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, (from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to preliminary estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. 
 
These GDP estimates are based on more complete source data than were available for the advance estimates issued last month. In the advance estimates, the decrease in real GDP was 3.8 percent.
 
The decrease in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from exports, personal consumption expenditures, equipment and software, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a positive …

Fourth-Quarter GDP Fell 6.2% in Latest Estimates Read More »

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