Goizueta Business School’s Sandy Jap, professor of marketing, was recently quoted in an article by The Washington Times titled, “Macy’s the latest retailer to say it will open Thanksgiving night”.
The article discusses Macy’s decision to “wave the white flag of surrender, announcing this month that, for the first time in its 155-year history, the company’s stores will open at 8 p.m. Thanksgiving evening to accommodate shoppers who can’t wait for the traditional Black Friday early morning opening.”
While Peter Sachse, Macy’s chief stores officer, is quoted saying, “For Macy’s, its important to make this day enjoyable and convenient for everyone, as our customers search for great deals on favorite wish-list items,” The Washington Times states “The decision…is another blow to the one American holiday many thought had resisted commercialization.”
Professor Jap is referenced in the discussion saying, “Part of this is growing demand on the part of customers, but a greater factor is likely the competition from online stores.” She goes on to say, “The past few years we have seen a growing number of holiday sales move online, as customers increasingly demand to be able to shop on their terms. When major retailers choose to open earlier, it puts pressure on other bricks-and-mortar retailers to follow suit.”
Jap’s research focuses on the development and management of interorganizational relationships in a number of industries, including the aerospace, automotive, chemical, petroleum, and consumer product industries. Her current work involving online, reverse auctions has received significant attention from the academic community and the marketplace, including The Wall Street Journal, CFO Magazine, and Harvard Business Review.
She joined the Goizueta Business School in 2001, but prior to that, Professor Jap was on the faculty at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her teaching includes courses in channel management, internet marketing, CRM analytic fieldwork, and marketing management in MBA, BBA, and Executive Education programs. In 2003, she was named one of the top twenty “potential leaders of the next generation of marketing academics” by the Marketing Science Institute and in 2004 she was given the title of Caldwell Research Fellow, an internal award for research excellence.
-Meredith Farahmand
