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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Nordstrom Looks Northward for Expansion Outside U.S.
Canada is definitely in for American retailers looking to expand outside U.S. borders. The most recent chain to express an interest in opening stores in that country is Nordstrom. Do…
Gas Price Drop a Good Sign for Summer Months
Memorial Day is approaching and that typically means gas prices have spiked at pumps across the nation. That would be true in a typical year, but 2011 is anything but,…
BrainTrust Query: LLBean.com – No Valid Address Required. Oops!
L.L.Bean will let online customers complete a purchase with only a payment card number and expiration date — no name, billing address match or other authentication required. How ready is…
Consumers Get (Apple’s) Religion
According to a new BBC documentary, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests on Apple devotees found brain activity virtually the same as in religious worshipers. What is it about Apple that…
Glenn Beck Does Daily Deals
Glenn Beck, the radio and television personality perhaps best known for his seemingly endless string of conspiracy theories, has gotten into a completely new line of business with a daily…
BrainTrust Query: Favoritism
We all have employees who make our life a little easier. They take on tasks without being asked and can always be counted on to get things done. Having favorites…
Ahold Chains Put Scanners in Shoppers’ Hands
The Wall Street Journal last week profiled the Scan It! handheld scanners that have been tested over the last few years and now rolled out to about half of Ahold…
Lowes Foods Tests Value Grocer Concept
Lowes Foods, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., is testing a value-grocery concept called Just$ave. Described as “Lowes Foods’ frugal cousin,” the concept features a “Dollar Spot” aisle, a wall of values,…
Niche TV Networks Hunt for Licensing Deals
Looking for some action beyond their celebrity hosts in the merchandising world, E! Entertainment and The Food Network have both recently hatched licensing deals across a number of categories. What…
Mobile Payment Future Belongs to the Young and Fast
While 62 percent of Americans who use a mobile phone are open to using them to make purchases, the numbers skew significantly based on age. How quickly will American consumers…
Barnes & Noble Gets Offer, Amazon Kindles E-Book Sales
Earlier in the week, we learned that Borders wasn’t having any luck finding a single buyer to purchase the bookstore chain, Barnes & Noble doesn’t have that issue, and Amazon.com…
Retail TouchPoints: Retailers Invest In Social Networks Despite Limited ROI
Retailers are banking more on the qualitative advantages of a social media presence, versus a quantitative ROI, according to The State Of Retailing Online 2011: Marketing, Social, and Mobile report…
Saks Upgrades Merchandise as Wealthy Spend More
While those in the middle and lower rungs of the economic ladder have had to continue economizing with the high price of fuel and other commodities, the nation’s wealthiest consumers,…
Amazon Expands Trade-In Program
Trade-in programs are nothing new; a wide variety of retailers are offering variations on the theme. Amazon.com offers a trade-in option, but the e-tail giant is looking to one-up the…
PL Buyer: Walking the Private Label-National Brands Tight Rope
More traditional supermarket operators are realizing that their private labels provide them with marketing points of distinction in today’s cluttered food retail landscape. But will private label reach a saturation…
Groupon/Quiznos Deal Goes for Repeat Customers
A new national deal offered by Quiznos through Groupon is looking to break through the cherry-picker mentality and get consumers coming back for more subs and salads. Are daily deal…
Netflix Taking Over the Web
Americans love to be entertained, and growing numbers are going online for it. In fact, according to a new report, nearly 30 percent of peak traffic on the internet is…
BrainTrust Query: Gamification of E-Commerce?
Games and friendly competition can be used to inject fun while influencing behavior. And what could be more fun than an auction? There’s a new group of retailers that have…
No Single Bidder for Borders
Borders, according to several reports, is in early discussions with an unidentified company to sell 225 of its stores after failing to find a single bidder to buy the whole…
Putting the (Nutritional) Truth on Display
A piece on The Atlantic website included an unscientific look at product displays in a small number of supermarkets to discover whether or not the stores were displaying nutritious items…
BrainTrust Query: What’s Your Shopper Marketing IQ?
Financial return on investment (ROI) is an important element of any shopper marketing assessment, but a true assessment needs to capture both the short and long-term effects of shopper marketing…
