1. Macy’s, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates approximately 800 department stores in the United States. Its retail stores sell a range of merchandise, including apparel, home furnishings, and house-wares. Senior management has decided that Macy’s needs to tailor merchandise more to local tastes, and that the colors, sizes, brands, and styles of clothing and other merchandise should be based on the sales patterns in each individual Macy’s store. How could information systems help Macy’s management implement this new strategy? What pieces of data should these systems collect to help management make merchandising decisions that support this strategy?
2. Despite aggressive campaigns to attract customers with lower mobile phone prices, T-Mobile has been losing large numbers of its most lucrative two- year contract subscribers. Management wants to know why so many customers are leaving T-Mobile and what can be done to entice them back. Are customers deserting because of poor customer service, uneven network coverage, wireless service charges, or com-petition from carriers with Apple iPhone service? How can the company use information systems to help find the answer? What management decisions could be made using information from these systems?