s (TJX Companies, 2002, p. 35).
TJX as a whole showed a sales increase of 11.8 percent between 2000 and 2001, as compared to 10.2 percent for Ross Dress for Less and 1.3 percent for The Gap (National Retail Federation, 2002). As by far the largest component of TJX, the Marmaxx unit must have had comparable performance.
In the fall of 2002, however, Marmaxx same store sales were showing annual growth of only 1 percent, as compared to 4 percent the previous year (Wedbush Morgan, 2002). This may be attributed to the sluggish economy. As a demonstration of how extraneous factors can affect retail performance, however, sales of fall clothing were depressed by unusually warm late summer and early fall weather (Wedbush Morgan, 2002).
Marshall's Position in the Marketplace
Marshall's is classed as an "off-price" retailer (Wedbush Morgan, 2002). That is, it offers brand names at below the standard retail markup for those items, along with less familiar brands in a similar price range. Large volume per store, inexpensive locations, and reduced sales staff in proportion to merchandise flow are among the tactical elements that allow Marshall's to support such reduced prices. As noted above, in addition to apparel and accessories it carries items such as bedding and household clocks. These are viewed by consumers within the broad fashion aura, and thus support rather than distracting from a primary focus on apparel.
Marshall's stores are typically located in "power centers," a type of retail complex that has increasingly supplanted the classical suburban mall of the 1950s through 1980s. Something may appropriately be said of these complexes, as they embody a retail dynamic that has powerfully affected fashion-industry retailing along with other components of the retail sector.
Although no universally accepted definition exists of a power center in the shopping center industry, the Urban Land Institute describe...