BJ's and Lululemon figured out they had too many products. Took them long enough. The revolutionary business strategy here is "stop selling things people don't want." Someone's getting promoted.
Box stores are culling inventory to curate offerings. That's what we're calling it now. Curating. They had fifteen types of spatulas and nobody bought eleven of them, so they're keeping four. This required multiple executive meetings and a consulting firm that charged six figures to say "get rid of the stuff that doesn't sell."
Retail brands are shrinking assortments to achieve healthy growth. Love that phrasing. Healthy growth. Like the business had diabetes and now it's on a cleanse. They were bloated because they kept adding products every quarter to justify their jobs, and now they're removing products every quarter to justify their jobs. The cycle continues.
Lululemon probably had forty-seven styles of yoga pants that all looked identical to anyone who doesn't own stock in the company. Now they have thirty-two. Revolutionary. Meanwhile BJ's was selling bulk mayonnaise in sizes that required a forklift. They're scaling back to sizes that only require moderate back pain.
The playbook is simple. Offer everything. Watch half of it collect dust. Announce you're streamlining. Call it innovation. Retail traders hear "trimming assortments" and think it's a turnaround story. It's not. It's admitting you f*cked up by ordering too much garbage in the first place.
Next quarter when sales are flat they'll add products again. Call it expansion. Then they'll remove them. Call it optimization. The wheel turns. Executives cash checks. Retail traders buy the dip on companies that finally stopped selling the seafoam green yoga mat nobody wanted.
Curation is just failure with better marketing.
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