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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
A Drugstore/Bar Grows in Brooklyn
Duane Reade literally raised the bar in its recent move into the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, home to many young hipsters and liberal yuppies. The location includes a beer bar…
Quidsi Selling Diapers, Soap on Facebook
There were probably quite a few reasons that Amazon.com thought Quidsi was worth over $500 million to acquire, especially as the company announced one-stop online shopping on Facebook. What do…
NRF: Disney Realizes Product Isn’t Everything
“Retail is a daunting undertaking” said Stephen Finney, SVP, global retail operations, Disney Store, at a Super Session at the NRF convention. The company found out first-hand watching Disney Stores…
NRF: Time for Supermarkets to Let Go?
One of the big themes at NRF this year was consumer mobile. Smart phone apps were everywhere. But behind all the glamorous devices and sexy apps sits the infrastructure of…
Target Buys Way Into Canada
Last January, Target announced that it would seek to build a presence outside of the U.S. market, but no sooner than 2013. The chain just announced plans to acquire the…
SCDigest: New Kroger Bar Code Scan Tunnel Could Revolutionize Retail Checkout
Since May of 2010, Kroger has been testing a revolutionary new approach to point of sale and retail checkout that involves high-speed imaging of bar codes or other identifiers to…
NRF: Google-izing e-Tail Searches
What lies at the soul of an e-commerce website? “It’s the search engine,” according to Nitin Mangtani — not a surprising answer coming from a group product director for Google…
NRF: Consumers Buy On Their Own Terms
A new IBM survey of more than 30,000 consumers released at this week’s National Retail Federation convention shows that consumers are optimistic about the future and willing to spend, and…
Boomers in Denial
On New Year’s Day, the oldest members of the Baby Boom Generation turned 65. Adjusting to having passed the middle of their (our) lives is a challenge, which may be…
NRF: The Mood Was Good in New York
Ah, remembering the bad old days. At the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in Manhattan, there was much discussion about the difference in the mood of attendees this year compared…
NRF: The 8 C’s of Customer Service
At a session Monday at the NRF convention, McMillan Doolittle unveiled its “8 C’s Model of Customer Experience.” Do you see anything missing from McMillan Doolittle’s 8 C’s Model of…
BrainTrust Query: Changing Role of the Mobile Marketer in a Cross-Channel World
As mobile and social media functions establish themselves, they join others in today’s multichannel marketing world. How should marketing departments resolve the conflicts and integration issues between mobile, social media…
Internet Connectivity Seen as TV’s Latest Savior
After finding that 3-D TVs didn’t live up to the hype last year, TV makers are hoping that internet-connected sets and related hardware devices will wow consumers this year and…
NRF: Are Retailers Ready for the (Overly) Informed Consumer?
Some of what BrainTrust panelist Bill Bittner heard at NRF made him wonder if retailers are really ready for the impact of an informed consumer. With larger, more sophisticated chains…
What’s the Next Cupcake?
Some foodies are calling 2010 the “Year of the Cupcake.” Cupcake-only bakeries have opened across major cities, and that appears to have extended to many smaller cities over the last…
BrainTrust Query: Dressing Rooms More Than a Convenience
Too many retailers see fitting rooms as only a convenience for the customers. The fact is that shoppers who use them are 71 percent more likely to buy versus those who…
NRF: Sustainability Still Searching for the Why
With the eco-movement at retail steadily building for years, it’s surprising that nearly all of the Sustainability Sessions at Sunday’s NRF convention touched on the motivations for going green. The…
Rite Aid Goes Offline and Mum
A funny thing happened yesterday when we went to the Rite Aid site. We couldn’t get on. More than 24 hours later and still that “problem loading page” message keeps…
Starbucks Keeps Siren, Loses Coffee
Why won’t they just leave those logos alone! Starbucks’ decision to update its logo hasn’t generated the hostility that Gap faced but it’s still a big deal based solely on…
FD Buyer: Restaurant Trends Grocers Should Know
With fierce competition for the consumer’s breakfast dollar between restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores and “street food,” innovators are pushing the envelope with new products, flavors and even new uses for…
Some in GOP Want to Scrap Food Safety Bill
Some GOP members believe America can do without The Food Safety Modernization Act, though the bill had wide support of food industry groups and members of both parties voted in…
