While Mr. Drexler, 57, has earned a reputation as a merchandiser with a magic touch, he has always thrived by grooming bevies of talented general-merchandising managers, known in the business as G.M.M.'s.
Aeon is Japan's second-largest general merchandiser, with $22 billion in annual sales, but it cannot match the buying power of the ten-times-larger Wal-Mart.
"If you are a mass merchandiser with no training program, the likelihood of creating wow is slim to none," says Courtney.
Over three excellent episodes, TMWMUS – AKA A Short History Of Greed, AKA A Compendium Of Nasty Bastards – offers a bilious torrent of marketers and merchandisers, peppered with chunks of shady dealings and the well-digested question of why we're compelled to spend.
Foot soldiers representing America's corporate merchandisers deluge us with generic marketing shoots.
At Hy-Vee, dietitians offer in-store consultations and store tours with customers, hold cooking classes, assemble take-home meals, take biometric screenings, do presentations in schools, businesses and civic events, work with merchandisers, help set up community gardens, assess products for nutritional value and a variety of other things.
Vendors are sorted by product category, then called one at a time into a curtained-off area to meet with merchandisers.
And the site has formed a number of partnerships with merchandisers, including Hot Topic for clothing and Thumbplay for mobile ringtones.
Designers and merchandisers have to go with their gut if they are making something new.
The merchandisers association's study with NPD, for example, was based on a survey in August 2011, barely a month after Spotify was introduced in the United States.
