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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Giant Foods Pops Up at NASCAR Race
Giant Foods opened a temporary grocery called the “Speedway Supermarket,” to serve fans at the Dover International Speedway in Dover, DE. to serve the needs of the packed RV campground…
Kroger Okay with Brand Price Increases
Food, drug and mass retailers have bristled at the idea of consumer packaged goods manufacturers taking prices up in recent years. Now, however, brands are seeing increases in a number…
Best Buy Makes Holiday Plans
Best Buy is not looking to increase the number of seasonal hires for the Christmas selling season like others such as Macy’s and Toys “R” Us, but that doesn’t mean…
Currency Bill Passes Over Retail’s Objections
A majority of Democrats and Republicans serving in the House of Representatives voted yesterday to give the government the option of levying tariffs on countries, specifically China, that undervalue their…
McDonald’s Articulates Its Brand Promise
McDonald’s is in the midst of the biggest transformation in store architecture, packaging, and messaging the company has ever undertaken in 32,000 stores, and in 118 countries. Of the tactics…
Small Pharmacies Win One vs. Chains in ND
North Dakota remains the only state in the union where Wal-Mart Stores cannot sell $4 generic prescription drugs due to a law that requires every pharmacy to be owned by…
Lights, Camera, Retail
While Madonna heads to Macy’s to launch her first fashion collection, Mariah Carey has chosen HSN, the latest coup for HSN CEO Mindy Grossman in her mission to upgrade the…
Dominick’s Offers Discounts ‘Just for U’
Dominick’s Finer Foods is hoping that its new digital discount program will enable it to gain share in the highly competitive Chicagoland grocery market even if it means giving up…
Penney Cutting Back on Catalogs, Again
Last November, when RetailWire reported that J.C. Penney would no longer publish its twice-yearly 1,000-page “Big Book” catalog, most of the comments on this site seemed to agree with the…
Wal-Mart Turns Attention to Africa
There may have been some who expected Wal-Mart to try to buy its way into the South African market through an acquisition, but most seem to have been taken off…
BrainTrust Query: Augmented Reality – The Impending Battle for Digital Real Estate
As augmented reality increases in usage, there could be potential turf wars between physical retail businesses and digital businesses vying for consumer attention in the same locations. How will the…
Debating the Meaning of ‘Farmers’ Market’
Some supermarkets are selling fruits and vegetables in front of their doors and describing the events as a “farmers’ market.” That’s upsetting those who believe the term should be reserved…
Fashion Knockoffs: Good or Bad?
U.S. lawmakers are considering legislation to protect fashion brands from knockoffs, but some believe the proposed rules would hurt both the industry and consumers. Is enabling the copying of fashion…
RSR Research: Getting Real About Green
In a benchmark report by Retail Systems Research “What Can Green Do for You?” released in May 2008, 86 percent of survey respondents reported packaging of private label product as…
Overdone Discounts Dull Shopping Pleasure
At least in Australia, retailers are discounting and consumers are heaving sighs of boredom. Talk about counter-productive. According to the Herald Sun in Melbourne, “The cut-price deals that have become…
Sears Takes Steps (Fashion) Forward
A series of announcements over the past month could give someone the impression that Sears Holdings is serious about improving its standing in the apparel and accessories business. Is Sears…
Rouses’ Gulf Coast Success Story
Rouses, based in Thibodaux, Louisiana, is something of an exception to the rules of modern grocery retailing. The family-owned business is successful and growing in an environment increasingly dominated by…
Price Chopper Learns Social Media Lesson
Social media is new territory for many companies so mistakes happen. Of course, there are mistakes and then there are mistakes, like the response by an employee of Price Chopper…
Young Adults Still Prefer Offline Marketing Offers
Despite the popularity of Facebook with the demographic, 18- to 34-year-olds still prefer to learn about marketing offers via postal mail and newspapers rather than online sources according to national…
Blockbuster Files for Chapter 11
It always seemed to be a question of when Blockbuster would file for bankruptcy protection and now it’s official, after reaching an agreement with a group of bondholders to reduce…
Study: Cross-Merchandising Drives Sales
A study by researchers at Texas A&M University confirms the power of cross-merchandising to drive incremental product sales in a wide variety or retail categories. How developed are retail cross-merchandising…
