Target and Wal-Mart Stores may be the biggest mass merchandisers in the country, but both believe business results can be improved by acting small--that is, tailoring what they do to individual communities and shoppers.  In August Target ( TGT - news - people ) announced it would begin delivering its weekly online ad, "My TargetWeekly," in a new, customizable form. The ad, which is seen by 1.2 million visitors to Target.com on a weekly basis, now lets consumers create views customized to their preferences as well as providing alerts to shoppers when their favorite products are on sale. The chain will also add "My TargetWeekly" to its Facebook page.  "Target is doing what smart retailers have to do: go to where the customers are," Rebecca Lieb, vice president at Econsultancy, told USA Today. "You have to engage people on their own terms."  For its part, Wal-Mart ( WMT - news - people ) is actively custom tailoring product offerings to shoppers on a store-by-store basis. While one-size-fits-all may offer some operational efficiencies and associated savings, the chain knows that giving shoppers what they want is the key to selling.  A Tampa Tribune report offered a contrast between two of the chain's stores, just six miles apart, in Florida.  One location offered "jugs of 'Big John's' pickled sausages, $3 camouflage baseball hats and $8 ladies' housedresses" and "a 3,000-square-foot section of the store sells yarn, craft supplies and fabric by the yard." The second "proudly displays a row of $1,500 HDTVs, hip college clothing, and not a single bolt of fabric."  Doug Stephens, founder of Retail Prophet Consulting and a RetailWire BrainTrust member, told the Tribune, "The days of buying containers of stuff and loading it into stores with the goal of selling it through over a year are over."  Target is also adapting product selection based on location. Jennifer Glass, a spokeswoman for the chain, said that stores in urban areas, for example, offer a wider variety of furniture and household goods intended for smaller dwellings.  "Given Wal-Mart's expertise in supply chain management, it's essential that they put this skill to good use micro-managing assortments by store," according to Richard Seesel, another RetailWire BrainTrust panelist writing in a recent online discussion. "Making this work requires great logistical execution by both Walmart and its vendors, adept use of its data warehouse, flexible "planogramming" and, above all, a committed culture."
Big boxes try localizing offerings, but is it possible to achieve the necessary detail spread over a massive store network?