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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Haters Get Their Own Facebook App
Ever come across a person, product or company page on Facebook and wish you had something decidedly more negative to click than a “Like” button? Well, now there’s a Facebook…
CPGmatters: Target ‘Switchers’ to Grow Store Brand Sales
Results of a new study by Buxton, the customer analytics company, in collaboration with Meijer, the Midwest retailer, suggest that targeting “switchers” is the right strategy to grow store brands…
RSR Research: Pricing Benchmark – Competitive Pressures
With continued uncertain economic conditions and increasing consumer price sensitivity, retailers seem far more apt to ignore customer data and look instead to competitors’ prices to make pricing decisions than…
Amazon Gets Robotic
In its biggest acquisition since the 2009 purchase of Zappos, Amazon agreed to pay $775 million for Kiva Systems, a maker of robots that move items around warehouses. What is…
Wegmans Grows Its Own Way
Wegmans, as everybody knows, is a different type of grocery chain. The company, which is regularly cited among the best employers in the country, also receives kudos for customer service…
Senator Not ‘Liking’ Bosses Asking for Facebook Passwords
It’s long been known that what you write on Facebook or other social media sites can come back to haunt you. Now comes word that employers, primarily in government it…
Mobile Promotions Trump Brand Loyalty
According to a survey investigating the behavior of smartphone owners in grocery and drug stores, nearly 75 percent of consumers would switch brands if offered real-time mobile promotions delivered to…
Retailers Put a Premium on Store Brand Growth
It’s not new news that retailers are looking to upgrade their private labels. Today, many see the creation of national brand equivalents at a lower price as the starting point…
Macy’s Goes All Millennial
Retailers looking to grow their businesses, identify demographic groups and then go about delivering on the various marketing P’s to turn the opportunity into purchases. For Macy’s, the current push…
BrainTrust Query: Note to Marketers – Remember your Grandmother
The latest viral internet storm caught my attention, but not for the reasons 85-year-old grandmother Marilyn Hagerty is making the rounds of morning network news shows. What lessons should Marilyn…
Angry Birds Take Up Space in Walmart
In a September 2011 RetailWire poll, many respondents thought the Angry Birds franchise would have two years or less before becoming yesterday’s fad. Now, according to reports, Walmart and Rovio,…
FD Buyer: Costco Makes SKU Rationalization a Fine Art
Beyond low margins, limited assortment also plays an important role in Costco’s success. While all the leading club chains expanded their assortments during the past five years, Costco’s grew the…
Grocers Get Slimed by Beef News
Lean, finely textured beef (LFTB) doesn’t draw much attention, but call it “pink slime” and suddenly consumers are making “ick” sounds all over the place. The result is that major…
Amazon Daily Deals for Itself
It was pretty much seen as a coup for LivingSocial in January 2011 when it ran a daily deal featuring a $20 Amazon.com gift card for $10. Amazon appears to…
Safeway to Roll Out ‘Just For U’ Personalization Program
At Safeway’s annual investors conference in early March, Steve Burd, president and CEO, raved about the potential of its Just For U marketing program. In test-mode for two years, Just…
BrainTrust Query: Has the Skill Level of Salespeople Decreased?
Over the years, less effort has been applied to sales training, and the training is often sub-optimal. The current “Conceptual Selling” or “Consultative Approaches” are too focused on being fact-based,…
Study: Gen Y Bringing Social Networking to Retail
A quantitative social science study from Brodeur Partners finds that while the ideal shopping experience for Boomers is finding a decent deal on a quality product, the Gen Y crowd…
Higher Payroll Leads to Better Retail Results
Everyone in retailing knows that it’s a huge business, and while the quantity of jobs is without dispute, most of the positions within the industry are low-paying. A report on…
Walgreens Buying Rite Aid Doesn’t Add Up
First off, we’d be shocked if Walgreens ever made a bid to acquire Rite Aid, and even more amazed if a deal to combine the two companies was ever approved…
Retail TouchPoints: Study Shows Value in Educating Consumers Online
The 14th Annual Mystery Shopping Study conducted in Q4 2011 by the e-tailing group, a Chicago-based consultancy, revealed that merchants are refining online tactics to find, inform, personalize and connect…
Greg Smith and the Value of Exit Interviews
Workers leaving one job for another are often counseled not to burn any bridges as they head out the door. While not an exit interview, the op-ed/resignation letter in The…
