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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
FD Buyer: ‘Frozen’ Means ‘Cheap,’ Right?
“Don’t even try to get that item into the frozen food department.” Basically, that’s what a frozen food buyer told a vendor awhile ago. He’s not upset about it –…
Target, Wal-Mart Say ‘Best Buys’ Are at Their Stores
Target and Wal-Mart want consumers to know that they don’t have to go looking at a big specialty chain store for the best buys on high quality consumer electronics anymore…
Justifying the $550 Pant
Despite the downtown and luxury meltdown, many pants can easily be found at retail north of $500. An article in The New York Times explored the rationality of such high-priced…
FMI 2010: Is Sustainable Packaging Possible for Retailers and Manufacturers?
At a Tuesday workshop at the FMI 2010 Customer Connect conference, Keely Wheaton of Target, Anne Johnson of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and Paul Hepperla of Verisae discussed what’s being…
FMI 2010: What the Industry Isn’t SPEAKING About
It didn’t come as a surprise that a good portion of yesterday’s FMI SPEAKS 2010 session on industry trends was focused on the “changing consumer” and their mission to find…
Platt Retail Institute: Digital Signage Integration – The Perfect Marriage
Whether it’s engagement and selectivity of products and services, or enabling operators to measure consumer interactions, mobile devices and digital signage complement each other by shoring up the other’s weaknesses…
Greenlife Grocery Customers Wary of Whole Foods
Some of the locals are up in arms that Greenlife Grocery announced plans last week to be acquired by a national chain. But it’s not Kroger, Supervalu or Safeway; it’s…
In-Store Events Gone Wild!
British fashion mecca Topshop hosts weekly in-store DJ sets, free tea and cake stands, roller-skating parties and photo booths that automatically load pictures to its Facebook page. The store is…
Grocers Ready to Fight Over Ukrop’s Shoppers
Ahold may have bought the Ukrop’s grocery chain but there is no guarantee that the shoppers who were loyal shoppers at the local institution will be coming around to shop…
CPGmatters: PepsiCo Gathers Shopper Insights Along the Path to Purchase
The path to purchase is not a straight line, and neither is it a circle as some have described it. It is more like a pool or a “puddle,” said…
Harrods Sold to Royal Family of Qatar
After denying for years that he planned to sell the iconic Harrods department store, Mohamed al-Fayed has done just that. Last week, Harrods announced it had to been sold to…
CVS Sees Food Growing Urban Business
CVS is looking to add fresh salads and sandwiches to stores located in urban areas. About 20 percent of the more than 7,000 stores operated by CVS are in urban…
BrainTrust Query: The Neighborhood Store – Fact or Fiction?
Within relationship marketing, there is the over-used metaphor of the neighborhood grocer as the iconic figure. The question became, how do you leverage the strategic advantage of being one of…
Is Retail’s Glass Half Full in 2010?
Now that the numbers are in, most are looking at the combination of March and April as an encouraging sign that consumer spending will not suddenly dry up as it…
Honesty and New Recipe Pays Off for Domino’s
Domino’s pizza used to be pretty bad. That’s what consumers told the chain and the company used that negative feedback to promote its brand new pizza recipe in its advertising…
BrainTrust Query: Going Unplugged for 24 Hours
Two hundred University of Maryland students from a variety of majors were given what seemed to be a fairly simple challenge: abstain from social media for 24 hours. What lessons…
Urban Outfitters, Aeropostale, Gain From ‘Frugal Fatigue’
A wide variety of specialty apparel retailers have seen improvements in same-store sales (share prices too) as consumers have seemingly grown tired of not spending. Among the retailers that have…
Researchers Ask Questions Consumers Can’t Answer
Ron Sellers has spent 23 years conducting brand and advertising research and in that time he has seen clients trying to get answers to questions that consumers simply can’t answer…
The Regional Mall Recasts Itself
With discounters positioned as anchors and the influx of food, entertainment and service providers as tenants, U.S. regional malls apparently reinvented themselves to sufficiently weather the recession. What do you…
Big Lots Expects Bigger Things as Economy Rebounds
Big Lots, along with many other discounters, benefited as the economy went into a prolonged tailspin beginning in 2008. Now that times are better, the closeout specialist is looking to…
Interim Tag Sticks to Sears’ CEO
W. Bruce Johnson is getting up every day and going to work to do his job. So, maybe it isn’t such a big deal that the chief executive of Sears…
