Passage 2
Stew Leonard's: The World's Largest Dairy STORE
Stew Leonard 's is the top-grossing, highest-volume food store in the world Builit on the philosophy that the customer is always right ,Stew Leonard's offers food shoppers low peices,low prices，high product quality, excellent customer service ,and a festive, Disney-like atmosphere. The Nonwalk, Connecticut store draws 100, 000 shoppers a week, some from as far away as Massa-chusetts ,Rhode Island, Pennsylvania，and NEW YORK,Annua1 sale total $ 100 million.
A 106 , 000-square-foot complex built around a highly :automated milk-processing operation, Stew Leonard's presents a narrow product mix-about 750 items,as compared to the 15, 000 items conventional supermarkets stock. Nevertheless ,the store sells in such volume that its per square foot sales of $2, 700 recently earned the a place in the Guinness
Book of World Records.
Customer Orientation
Stew Leonard ' s low prices — about 10 to 20 percent lower than prices at stores in a five-mile radius — are partly responsible for the store's popularity, but even more important is the store's responsiveness to customers. Indeed, the store opened in response requests from Leonard's former milk route customers. Today, customer demand continues to dictate what products the store carries. Although Stew Leonard's may test-market as many as 10, 000 dif-ferent products in a year, an item must sell 1, 000 units weekly to remain in inventory. Thus the store carries only the best-selling brands of such items as cereal ,yogurt ,and peanut butter. Stew Leonard ' s also emphasizes product quality. Because of enormous sales volume, the store can buy by the truckload directly from producers, passing along the asvings and freshness to customers. Stew Leonard' s also has the leverage to order house brands made to its own spec-ifications.
Stew Leonard's strong customer orientation is reflected in the two rules carved in a huge, three-ton granite boulder just outside the door. Rule 1 states that " the customer is always right. Rule 2 says, " If the customer is ever wrong, reread Rule 1. " Customer service is the top priority at Stew Leonard ' s. To eliminate long check-out lines, the Leonards have equipped the store with twenty-five cash registers. Should any line back up to more than three customers, a store employee immediately passes out free ice cream or snacks to waiting customers. The Leonards also actively solicit ideas from their customers, both to keep up with trends and to im-prove service. About once a month, focus groups of customers are invited to criticize the store ' s products and policies — and management listens (Stew Leonard ' s pays 10 customers 20 each in gift certificates to participate in the focus groups) . For example, at the focus groups' suggestion , Stew Leonard ' s began to sell strawberries loose , instead of packaged. Originally the store's profit margin on strawberries decreased, but sales increased tenfold;the store was able to get a better deal from the supplier, and ultimately profits on strawberries were higher.
Stew Leonard ' s also acts promptly on the hundred-odd messages dropped into the store ' s suggestion box each day. When the Leonards followed one customer's suggestion that English muffins be displayed near bacon and eggs, muffin sales increased 50 percent. Another customer reported that he would have bought deli roast beef on special if the hard rolls had not been located clear across the store at the bakery. Leonard moved some rolls near the deli counter； sales of both rolls and deli roast beef doubled.
At Stew Leonard's nothing is too good for a "customer" . When a woman complained to Leonard the day after Thanksgiving that her turkey had been too dry, he immediately handed her a $ 20 turkey free of charge, knowing that her week-in, week-out business meant much more to the store than the price of a single turkey. Leonard also had high praise for the new courtesy booth employee who surprised a distraught customer with S 50 in gift certificates after the customer was unable to find her missing sterling silver pen. Leonard ' s oft-repeated slogan gets the point across to all employees: "Satisfy the customer； Teamwork gets it done； Excel-lence makes it better.
Building Customer Loyalty
The Leonards also enhance the appeal of their products by bringing store functions out front, where customers can watch. The milk-processing plant (so highly automated that a tank truck ' s load of raw milk can be pasteurized and packaged in one day by just four employees ) is enclosed in glass; customers see 150 half-gallon cartons of milk per minute moving along a conveyor belt A plastic cow’ s head affixed to the front wall of the dairy plant moos when customers press a button. Butchers and fish cutters slice and package in full view of shoppers, and in the deli department an employee uses a special in-store demonstration oven to make pizza. Throughout the store，employees hand our samples of everything from gazpacho to cupcakes, in accordance with the Leonards’observation that sales quadruple when samples are available.
Because of all this, Stew Leonard' s satisfied customers often take it on themselves to tell others about the store. The Leonards are fond of reminding their staff, "Lower the price； sell the best； word of mouth will do the rest. Several years ago a customer presented Leonard with a snapshot of herself standing in front of the Kremlin in Moscow, holding a Stew Leonard ' s plastic shopping bag. When Leonard posted the picture on the store ' s bulletin board, other customers began following suit. Today, an entire wall in the store is covered with more than seven thousand photos of customers at locations around the world一 the Matterhorn, the Great Wall of China, the Egyptian pyramids, the North Pole, and the floor of the Pacific Ocean — each customer holding one of the 250, 000 bags Stew Leonard ' s gives away each year. Such practices build customer loyalty, say the Leonards, and inspire customers to pass the word to friends.
回答问题
Which of the Following may NOT account for Leonard ' s popularity?
A、Low price
B、Good service
C、Customer orientation
D、Uniqueness of products
【正确答案】：D