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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
FRBuyer: Six Strategies for Independent Grocer Success
Grocery independents can thrive if they differentiate and win on the local front. What would be your blueprint for how grocery independents should differentiate themselves? What’s missing from the suggestions…
Less Work, More Choice For Seniors to Eat Well
Facts of life: some seniors reach a point where they can’t/won’t cook but they still want to eat tasty but healthy food. Meanwhile, they enjoy shopping and like having an…
Ugly Holiday Forecasts So Far
While some were holding out hope that last-minute selling and after-season gift card sales would help save the day, early estimated holiday results appear to be coming in lower than…
BrainTrust Query: Six 2013 New Year’s Resolutions for Marketing and Insights
This is the year to take action rather than talking about it. This is the year marketing teams need to move from empty narrative to data. This is the year…
Variable Online Pricing Gaining More Attention
More websites are offering different prices for different consumers based on their browsing history, location, and even the device they’re using. The news is not pleasing privacy advocates. Will much…
The Cumbersome Return Process
While sales associates are regularly lauded for their on-floor selling techniques, their true people skills come out when managing returns. What extra step could stores take to ease the hassle…
Food Trends to Impact Retail in 2013
With the end of the year around the corner, “SupermarketGuru” Phil Lempert released his annual food trends predictions for 2013. What food/food shopping trend do you think will be most…
E-mail Marketing Is the Old Dog Learning New Tricks
As hot new trends go, social media marketing is looking decidedly lukewarm. According to a November report from IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, the number of e-shoppers making purchases after clicking…
Christmas at McDonald’s
McDonald’s is encouraging its franchisees to stay open on Christmas after seeing healthy sales at those locations operating on Thanksgiving. What do you think of McDonald’s urging its franchisees to…
BrainTrust Query: Can Paul DePodesta Knock It Out of the Park for Sears Holdings?
Sears Holdings’ Chairman Eddie Lampert has gone outside the box in an effort to add to his bench strength by placing “Moneyball” statistical analyst Paul DePodesta on the company’s Board…
A Weary Holiday Consumer
ShopperTrak on Wednesday trimmed its holiday forecast, saying the selling period would have “a different tone” in the wake of three shocks — the school shootings in Connecticut, Hurricane Sandy…
Study: EDLP to Become More Prevalent
75 percent of retailers are expected to be either EDLP or some form of hybrid EDLP/high-low format within three years, according to a study by AMG Strategic Advisors. What do…
Should Retailers Fire ‘Just Good Enough’ Managers?
All of us have had the experience of shopping in stores that aren’t bad enough to cause us to stop going back and not good enough that we really enjoy…
BrainTrust Query: Perishables Keep Many Retailers from Perishing
Nothing defines a traditional supermarket chain better than their perishable departments. Survey after survey tells us that superior perishable offerings are consistent reasons why shoppers continue to patronize supermarkets. What’s…
Free WiFi Quietly Becomes Widespread at Retail
With little fanfare, Target, J.C. Penney, Kohl’s and Saks joined several other chains just before the start of the holiday season in installing free Wi-Fi access across their locations. Why…
Retail Customer Experience: Indoor Mapping Gives Power to Retailers
While outdoor GPS mapping is nothing new to the many users of Garmin’s or iPhones and the like, indoor navigation maps are still in their infancy. What would be most…
Amazon Launches Social Gifting Tool
Amazon.com, Inc. last week launched Friends & Family Gifting, an application that lets users merge their Facebook and Amazon accounts to find gift suggestions. How should brick & mortar retailers…
Snack Bars Enjoying Snack Time
According to a report from financial services provider Rabobank Group, the U.S. snack bar market has grown at twice the rate of other snack foods over the past ten years…
Apple Gets Promotional
Apple, often lauded for its strict pricing policies, appears to be getting more promotional this holiday season. On Friday, Walmart said it would begin selling the new iPhone 5 well…
StorefrontBacktalk: Best Buy Yanks E-mail Support From Its Site. Shoppers May Be Better Off
Best Buy in early December removed e-mail support from its website, a move the company said was designed to improve response and to give customers the kind of interactions they…
The Rise of the Supermarket Concierge?
With chefs and other specialists becoming more prevalent in supermarkets, the Food Channel network declared the supermarket concierge to be one of the top food trends for the coming year…
