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What will Applebee’s and Boston Market learn from their virtual restaurants?
Applebee’s, Boston Market and Chuck E. Cheese are all facing a backlash for creating separate online-only restaurants and being vague about their connection. Are Chuck E. Cheese, Applebee’s and Boston…
Lowe’s and Home Depot get a boost as customers stay-at-home
Same-store sales jumped 12.3 percent at Lowe’s and 7.5 percent at Home Depot in their first-quarters as sheltering Americans found time to tackle household projects. What factors will be most…
Who wins/loses if Amazon pushes Prime Day to September?
Amazon is looking to get its once vaunted distribution system back into its pre-pandemic shape and doing so will require pushing its annual Prime Day event from July to September…
Can influencers connect during a pandemic?
According to Advertising Age, influencer marketing in mid-March came to a halt as the pandemic “made much of what influencers once did look tone-deaf.” Do you think influencers hold more…
New marketing analytics for a new COVID-19 reality
It certainly isn’t business as usual for marketers navigating COVID-19, and it can’t be business as usual for marketing analytics teams either. Here are three changes that analytics teams need…
Was the $3.3 billion Walmart spent on Jet.com worth it?
When Walmart acquired Jet.com for $3 billion-plus in 2016, the move raised some eyebrows. Now that Walmart has announced that it is closing Jet.com after less than four years, the…
Bob Mariano has plans to create a great ‘next-gen’ grocery store
With his namesake stores acquired by Kroger in 2015, Bob Mariano plans to get back into the game with a March 2021 launch of a new “next-gen” grocer. Will Dom’s…
Is Kohl’s a stronger retailer as it reopens stores?
Kohl’s stores went largely out of business on March 20 as it closed all of its locations across the country. The negative impact showed up in the retailer’s first-quarter results,…
Will face masks be a lifeline for apparel retail?
Apparel continues to struggle amid the uncertainty of the novel coronavirus pandemic, but one brand has made the best out of the situation, pivoting to use materials already in its…
IKEA’s play fort ads illustrate what’s good about times like these
IKEA is earning wide praise for offering illustrated instruction manuals on Instagram for building a series of at-home forts. The campaign’s goal: keep the kids occupied in coronavirus lockdown. What…
Can Target afford to pay (not pay) a $15 minimum wage?
Target has announced that it will extend a temporary $2 an hour wage hike, double-overtime pay and other benefits to its associates in recognition of their efforts during the novel…
Is Amazon about to buy J.C. Penney?
Amazon.com has wasted no time in pursuing a possible acquisition of all or some of J.C. Penney’s business, according to news initially broken by WWD. Would a purchase of all…
Has the pandemic transformed Walmart into an unstoppable force?
Walmart is noted for performing at a high level when facing down natural disasters and economic tumult, and has remained so as the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the lives of…
Wegmans breaks price increase news to its customers
In a note to customers, Wegmans said that “retail prices on certain items in our stores will fluctuate in response” to increasing operational and food costs tied to the coronavirus…
The new normal will look a lot like the old normal
Assuming scientists (and not politicians) are allowed to develop inoculations and we don’t all die in the meantime, things will return mostly to “the old normal.” For better or worse,…
What’s J.C. Penney’s next move?
J.C. Penney entered bankruptcy proceedings with a sense of urgency, setting a deadline of July 15 to secure support from lenders on a reorganization plan or pivot to pursuit of…
Would an Uber/Grubhub merger be good for restaurant meal delivery?
Uber is reportedly in talks to acquire Grubhub in what promises to reshape the restaurant meal delivery space. Would an Uber and Grubhub merger be a positive development for restaurants…
Are Amazon’s at-cost face shields an act of goodwill or predatory behavior?
Engineers at Amazon.com’s Prime Air unit have developed face shields that will soon be made available at a very low cost to frontline healthcare workers on the e-tailing and tech…
McDonald’s publishes playbook for reopening restaurants
McDonald’s “The Dine-In Reopening Playbook,” published for franchisees and company-owned restaurant managers, describes in detail the process for welcoming customers back to eat at the chain’s more than 14,000 U.S…
How can brands support shuttered independent retailers?
Brands in the active lifestyle space have been rolling out support programs to help their independent specialty store partners weather the COVID-19 storm. What do you think of independent retailers…
Should grocers keep paying their associates like heroes?
Since the novel coronavirus pandemic began, low-paying frontline positions in grocery have been recognized by the public as some of the most indispensable and dangerous in the country. As states…
