ilar, pool of suppliers. You can buy the same brand-name products from many different retailers. (Consumers can get the same handsets, the same coverage, and the same types of services from many providers.) Retailers are forced to compete for customers' attention on an almost daily basis. Customers buy from stores often. Some consumers go daily to certain stores (convenience stores), weekly to others (grocery stores), or monthly to some (clothing stores). Other types of consumers buy only once every few years (beds, furniture, and appliances, for example). (The frequency with which consumers reevalu- ate their purchase decisions is called the buying cycle or shopping cycle, and the size and shape of the telco con- sumer's shopping cycle is one of the big challenges the telco churn manager has to face). Retailers must deal with churn in a way that no other industry needs to. In fact, retailers don't even give a special classification to the phenomenon. For a retailer, churn is simply the day-to-day nature of their business. Retailers have several advantages when it comes to dealing with customer loyalty, however, that the telco provider cannot hope to emulate. Most retailers have a physical location that the customer associates with the buying experience. This can be both bad and good. It is good because a good location can develop a consumer's preference simply because access is convenient. That is why you tend to see retailers located in places convenient to large populations. It is also good because the physical location provides consumers with a reference point. When customers think of a retailer, they get a mental picture of the store, the people, and the whole retail experience. The disadvantage with a good location is that your competition has the same option. It is not uncommon to find clusters of retailers specializing in the same kinds of products in certain sections of a city. This, of course, takes away from the location advantage. Chapter 6 The other big advantage retailers have is that, since consume