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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Can Loyalty Save Your Town?
Social tools present the potential to level the playing field between local merchants and their national competitors. In fact, local merchants should be able to do much better, with their…
Tesco Considering All Options for Fresh & Easy
It appears as though The Times of London had it right. Back in 2007, when Tesco opened its first Fresh & Easy concept stores in the U.S., the paper ran…
Walmart Says ‘No Comment’ to HuffPost
As the largest retailer in the world, Walmart is a very big target for media. Still it’s perplexing that the company has chosen to stop talking to a major media…
Retailers Ask President to End West Coast Port Strike
A strike by 800 clerks represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and supported by 10,000 dockworkers has shut down the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles at…
Grocery Promos Come Under Attack in the U.K.
Eight grocers in the U.K. have agreed to follow new guidelines over promotions after complaints about the veracity of special offers. How widespread are misleading promotional practices in the U.S…
Who Needs Call Centers When There’s Twitter?
Recent mechanical failures of appliances purchased from a single retailer resulted in a call to the chain’s service department. After dealing with service reps for over an hour and getting…
Independents Deemed Mall-Worthy
While most malls largely support national stores, an upscale mall in Phoenix area is creating some room for a few local independents. What type of support structure may malls have…
Santa Gets Scrooged
Taking children to the store to see Santa Claus has long been a tradition designed to increase loyalty, footfall and sales, but one store in England, Debenhams, has taken the…
Office Depot Goes Small
Office Depot has debuted a new smaller concept at four stores in Denver that encourages small business owners to “interact more with products, with Office Depot associates, and with each…
BrainTrust Query: The Incredible Dissolving Store
How should category management professionals adjust to a world with vastly more information and a good deal less control? The accompanying diagram identifies ten factors and sources to consider. How…
Target Execs: Technology Changing Everything
Target has had some well-documented challenges with consumer-facing technologies in the past. But now, most of those seem to be in the company’s rearview mirror. What technologies currently available do…
Starbucks Takes Coffee to a Whole New, Expensive Level
Starbucks, the company that convinced consumers to pay more for coffee drinks than they had ever done before, is appealing to the small luxury mindset along with the allure of…
Chains Have Plans to Keep Americans Spending
Now that the consumption craziness associated with the Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday period is over, there is, of course, the continual barrage of great deals and discounts still out there…
Small Merchants ‘Bah Humbug’ Daily Deals
A RetailWire story back in July of 2011 looked at plans by consumers to use daily deal offers to save money on their holiday purchases. Now comes a report that…
CPGmatters: Analysis of Retail Digital Media Activity Helps Kellogg Better Shape Strategies
Although the process of tracking and analyzing retail digital media is new and still being defined, it already represents about a $750 million spend for manufacturers and is expected to…
Is Retail Ready for Facial-Recognition Technologies?
Albeit too fast for privacy advocates, face recognition technologies appear to be advancing far enough to finally offer a real solution for retailers. Will the trepidation facing the rollout of…
Online Shopping Not a Social Affair, Yet
It certainly isn’t for a lack of effort, but even with the holiday season here, retailers continue to struggle with using social media sites to drive sales. Why do you…
Brick & Mortar Chains Aim High Online
In today’s multi-channel retailing world, there certainly isn’t anything unusual about traditional brick & mortar stores achieving significant growth online. In fact, some are among the biggest e-tailers in the…
Cyber Monday Sales Record Shattered
Consumers showed no indication that they were letting up on online purchases on Cyber Monday despite having already spent a record $59.1 billion over the four-day Thanksgiving Day weekend. What…
Study: Employee Raises More Than Pay for Themselves
A new study from Demos, a liberal think tank, concludes that not only can the nation’s largest retailers afford to pay workers substantially more, but that all will benefit greatly…
Retail TouchPoints: The Impact of Apple Product Marketing On Luxury Retail
The fundamental Apple approach to design is an unwavering commitment to the unification of technology and the liberal arts, Scott Forshay, mobile and emerging technologies strategist at Acquity Group, remarked…
