The Apple of their eyes

The statement seems have grown into a bit of a cliché now, but it is often said that he created customers' needs rather than just satisfying them. The passages in Jobs' biography on how he made Apple into one of the most successful companies in the world are striking. In it the fact is related that its Fifth Avenue shop in New York is the most profitable outlet in the world. In 2010 Steve Jobs noted: "This store grosses more per square foot than any store in the world. It also grosses more in total - absolute dollars, not just per square foot - than any store in New York. That includes Saks and Bloomingdale's." And what sales per sqm does Tesco, for example, generate? I promise to ask a representative of the chain at the next opportunity. Why Tesco? While Piotr Korek, the vice-president of the management board of Tesco Polska, was telling us about a decrease in the company's revenues, he suggested as a solution reducing the size of hypermarkets, and - something he feels to be a better idea - being ahead of and creating shoppers' expectations as well as developing strategies to win their custom and, most of all, gain their long-term loyalty. Sounds simple? All you need to do is go about this in the way Apple has done. The feature article of the September issue is dedicated to these and other methods adopted by shopping centre tenants to gain access to customers' hearts and disposable incomes.