Ron Johnson Quotes

Pretty much, Apple and Dell are the only ones in this industry making money. They make it by being Wal-Mart. We make it by innovation.

We got to know the competition very well. In the '50s popcorn made a big growth in sales. Our main push was to produce the best quality and sell in quality retail outlets.

Wal-Mart's success strategies and tactics are easy to understand yet hard to duplicate.

I say at our management conferences that the amount Wal-Mart grows in just one year is the equivalent of Costco's size.

I don't see anything Wal-Mart can do that other retailers can't.

I love Wal-Mart, and not just because my record is there. You can get some things there that you cannot find at Saks or Bergdorf's or other upscale stores.

You can't be in a certain business and not sell to Amazon or not sell to Wal-Mart. You have to reckon with them, because even though there are other buyers, they're the only buyers that matter.

For many years, we have repeated that the direct-to-consumer channel is growing and capturing a larger share of our customers' wallet.

No one stopped buying I.B.M. because Tom Watson wasn't there, but they stopped buying Elizabeth Arden because she wasn't there.

Your company's most valuable asset is how it is known to its customers.

But they are also better, our competitors are better because Wal-Mart exists.

I love to go shopping at Target. They have so much stuff there, you can buy almost anything, it's really amazing.

As far as sustaining our popularity, I believe we can.

We can learn from IBM's successful history that you don't have to have the best product to become number one. You don't even have to have a good product.

The advantage of the consumer businesses is they tend to be much broader-based, much larger number of customers, that tend to over time be a lot more predictable. The advantage of the enterprise companies is they are not as subject to consumer trend, fad, behavior.

You can't create a mass market if you don't have a common standard.

So, I think it has to do with the product and what you take to the public. If they like it, they're going to come see you, and if they don't, and if you're kind of getting out of the trendy line of things, then they won't come see you.

That's the ultimate gratification in any business situation - do customers buy the product? And do they use it and do they come back and buy more of it?

I love Claw Money. They always send me stuff. I always wear their sweatpants.

The most interesting information I can have about a competitor is the cost.

As our products have improved, and you add value at the high end, customers move to the high end.

Kmart's as much a part of my history as 'Charlie's Angels.' Twenty-five years! It's not just a celebrity brand.

A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.

Retailing has gone from an information-scarce to an information-rich environment.

We don't have to go that far to sell our beer because our immediate accounts sell so much. Places that sold 10 cases before, now they're selling 30.