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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
BrainTrust Query: Hola Loyalty – Meet Valoramás
With a diverse assembly of Latin American diaspora which has increasingly adopted American language and culture, loyalty marketers have been trying to find the right formula to create a coalition…
Walmart Adding DIY Checkouts
Walmart, according to a Reuters report, is expanding the numbers of self-checkouts in its stores in an effort to cut costs and, ultimately, offer even lower prices to consumers in…
The Great Price Increase Pushback
Consumer packaged goods company pricing may be summed up as “What goes up (prices), never comes back down.” But recent reports show retailers pushing back against increases. Have consumers “reached…
Mannequins Put on Some Weight
Driven by the popularity of some more ‘shapely’ or ‘curvy’ stars — but also seen as long overdue in many circles — apparel stores in the U.K. are asking suppliers…
Retailers Prize Pets
Conventional wisdom has held that even with economic tough times, people continue to lavish the best on their pets. But at least one report says that pets are now feeling…
Walmart V. Harris Teeter in Carolina
Walmart recently ran ads comparing its prices to Harris Teeter in North Carolina. And it turns out that the company is planning to run similar ads in markets around the…
CPGmatters: PepsiCo Urges Industry to Focus on ‘Speed’ to Spur Growth
At the Food Marketing Institute Midwinter Executive Conference in Orlando, John Compton, CEO, PepsiCo Americas Foods and Global Snacks Group, called on the food industry to speed up the way…
Site Offers Biggest Discounts to More Sociable Shoppers
Whoever said that tweets don’t pay? Volga Verdi, a fashion brand focused on “superbright clothing,” has taken a unique approach to driving sales and getting the word out about its…
Is Martha Stewart Overextended at Retail?
A recent article in USA Today, “Is Martha Stewart’s brand too confusing?”, explored whether Ms. Stewart has overextended her name across retail, particularly as her new line of office supplies…
RSR Research: An Enterprise-wide BI Strategy – Why it Matters
Even though 85 percent of respondents to RSR’s Business Intelligence (BI) benchmark survey in 2011 reported some activity in developing an enterprise-wide BI strategy, it might be a good time…
App Lets Neiman Marcus Know When Best Customers Arrive
Neiman Marcus is testing a new iPhone-only app that enables store associates to know when a customer arrives in the store and allows them to interact with her. At the…
Target and Walmart Working Together on Mobile Payments
Banks, credit card companies, mobile service providers, PayPal and others are getting into developing mobile payment solutions for consumers and merchants alike. Now comes a report by The Wall Street…
Nordstrom Sells Second-Hand Shoes
Nordstrom may need to refurbish its image now that CNBC has reported that the retailer is taking returned and otherwise worn shoes from its department stores and sending them to…
BrainTrust Query: Teenagers Have Changed – What it Takes for Them to Succeed in Retail
In a recent Wall Street Journal article, “What’s Wrong With the Teenage Mind?”, finds that we have many smart young people, but research is showing they haven’t had the right…
Costco Does Well, Really Well
When former CEO Jim Sinegal announced he would retire on January 1, he and his successor, Craig Jelinek, made a point that very little would change. And if by that…
Brands Skip Retailers, Go Direct to Consumers
The results of an August 2010 poll by RetailWire showed that sixty-eight percent of respondents said brands going the consumer-direct route had a much or somewhat bigger upside than those…
Downtown Retail Takes on the Malls
Recent evidence indicates shoppers are migrating from bricks and mortar to clicks. But when shoppers want real stores with real products they can touch and feel, where do they want…
Whole Foods Seeks to Kinect With Customers
While smart shopping cart ventures have failed to establish a significant presence at retail up to this point, Microsoft, Whole Foods and Chaotic Moon have begun testing a prototype called…
The Case of the Abandoned Shopping Cart
In recent years, officials have been exploring what to do about abandoned shopping carts that many see as a blight on their communities. With budgets tight, many municipalities are looking…
Target to Ban Sandblasted Jeans
People will go to great expense to look good, but there are times when the human cost is simply too high. A clear case-in-point is sandblasted jeans. Will the rest…
Some See Big as Bad in Online Retail
Mom & pops often find some of their best customers are those who purposely avoid shopping major retailers. In the same manner, some smaller online stores are tapping into those…
