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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Retail Customer Experience: Eight insights for maximizing online coupon use
According to Borrell Associates, online coupon redemptions are projected to jump more than 50 percent to $12.7 billion in 2010 and to $22 billion by 2014. What do you think…
Interview: Fresh & Easy Fits Where Others Don’t
Before Tesco opened its first Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, there were plenty of people willing to make predictions. While there’s little question Fresh & Easy has faced challenges, company…
Whole Foods Hits the Street for New Products
Trader Joe’s was (is) known for having its people scouring the planet looking for unique products so it can deliver items not found in other stores. What other food retailers…
Are Healthy Sweets an Oxymoron?
The message is finally getting through. Sorta kinda. Consumers want to eat whatever they want. And be healthy. And have choice. They want manufacturers and retailers to help. So does…
America’s Greenest Brands
The Great Recession may have left American consumers thinking more about their personal finances than saving the planet, but environmental issues are still of importance for large numbers of people…
Wegmans Learns By Doing, Down on the Farm
Wegmans’ Jim Heberle is excited. “We aimed for ripe tomatoes before Memorial Day, and we made it,” he told Syracuse’s Post-Standard newspaper. The we Mr. Heberle referred to are all…
BrainTrust Query: Main Street Must Be Interdependent Businesses, Not Independent
There is a renewed emphasis on downtown Main Streets because they are what gives their communities character. America’s foundation for greatness has come from honoring and preserving the best of…
Costco’s Challenge for CPG Vendors
While the market potential for Costco is large, its SKU-constrained environment, margin requirements, private label acumen, and regional buying prowess place numerous challenges on CPG companies versus other channels, according…
Pop-up Gourmet Food Stores
In the world of food and retailing, you never know what’s going to pop up next — literally. Two chefs in Oakland, California are demonstrating just how such a concept…
Winn-Dixie Tries to Reformat Image
Winn-Dixie is a long way from the chain’s heyday, but the grocery chain is looking to make a new future for itself a few years after having emerged from the…
Tesco Succeeds With Succession Plan
Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy is widely credited with turning Tesco into an international retailing powerhouse and now his job is “almost complete.” The final stage is to turn the…
Retail TouchPoints: Scoring Loyalty Points with Funware
Videogame innovator and entrepreneur Gabe Zichermann’s new book, “Game-Based Marketing: Inspire Customer Loyalty Through Rewards, Challenges and Contests,” explores the concept of “funware,” a new model for incorporating and leveraging…
Chains Hire ‘Wal-Mart Killers’ on the Sly
It’s not unusual for businesses to quietly bankroll individuals or organizations that advance causes supporting their corporate goals. One such organization, Saint Consulting Group, according to a Wall Street Journal…
Walgreen Says No to Doing Business with CVS Caremark
Walgreens announced yesterday it would no longer do business with CVS Caremark. The drugstore chain believes CVS’s pharmacy benefits management division is set up to drive down its profits while…
Steak Smell from a Billboard
Bloom grocery stores, part of Food Lion, recently unveiled one of the nation’s first scented billboards. Accompanied by a gigantic depiction of a fork piercing a piece of meat, the…
Wal-Mart’s Apparel Project
Described by Women’s Wear Daily as its “perennial Achilles heel,” Wal-Mart once more changed direction in its struggling apparel business. Why do you think Wal-Mart has struggled in its apparel…
BrainTrust Query: What Localization Means
Many national retailers are moving away from a strictly homogeneous national merchandise offering and providing a variety of assortments tailored to local tastes and preferences. What are the main hurdles…
Sharper Image Brings Back Father’s Day Catalog
Dads are going to feel the love this Father’s Day and now there is one more place where gift givers can turn for the latest gadgets and assorted other stuff…
Soap.com: Moving Beyond Diapers
With the launch of soap.com, the founders of diapers.com are hoping to take their low-margin, bulky-item online success formula to “everyday essentials.” What do you think of the online opportunity…
Target to Provide Immediate Incentive to Use REDcard
Holders of Target’s REDcards will soon have good reason to expect more because they will indeed be paying less. The retailer announced that users will get an additional five percent…
CSD: Recycling Program Breeds Customer Loyalty
While stopping for gas one day, two waste management interns working for the city of Lexington, KY, pondered how much garbage could be recycled from cars if locations, such as…
