Personal Shoppers at Sears: The Elf Initiative

The senior vice-president of Corporate Store Sales, Sears Canada, was reviewing a new retailing initiative scheduled to launch within a month in all full-line Sears department stores across Canada. For the holiday season, Sears would offer the services of an elf, the equivalent of a personal shopper, to its customers. Although personal shoppers were common in upscale department stores, especially in the United States, this concept had not been tried in Sears stores. Taylor wondered how customers would respond to this novel concept in Canadian retailing.