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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Publix Caters to Hispanics in Georgia Store
Publix has a lot of experience serving Hispanic consumers, in its Florida home market. Now the company has taken its Hispanic focus outside of the Sunshine state with a remodeled…
Retailers That Are Looking Good
The economy certainly hasn’t been good for the retail business but that doesn’t mean there aren’t retailers that are doing well. A piece on Kiplinger.com points to four other chains…
RadioShack Tests Concept for Mobile Devices
RadioShack is testing a new concept in the Dallas area focusing on wireless devices and services. PointMobl stocks each mobile category – from compact laptops and MP3 players to smart…
Malls Cutting Hours as Traffic Slows
Simon Property Group and the Westfield Group have separately announced plans to cut back hours at malls they operate in response to lighter foot traffic and the need to reduce…
Missouri Bill Would Mandate OTC to Rx Switch for Cold Meds
If passed, a bill proposed by law makers in Missouri would require consumers to have a doctor’s prescription in order to obtain medicines containing pseudoephedrine. The aim of the bill…
CPGmatters: Too Many Nutrition Programs Compete with MyPyramid
The outgoing leader of the federal government’s MyPyramid food-guidance program is troubled by growing competition that is posed by nutrition-rating programs launched in grocery stores by individual companies ranging from…
Food Manufacturers Making Cuts to Product Lines
The Associated Press (AP) reports that Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, Heinz and Sara Lee are getting rid of slower moving lines in favor of promoting top sellers in light…
Zappos to Introduce Customizable Web Pages
The next step in online shopping could be greater use of web pages that customers can customize to suit their own preferences. That’s the hope for Zappos, which is using…
RetailWire/Dechert-Hampe Study Results: What’s Next at Retail?
What’s the next big (or small) concept that will rock retailing? That was among the questions asked in the newly released RetailWire/Dechert-Hampe report, Retail Formats in Transition. Based on the…
Economic Mess Called Biggest Opportunity Ever
Cisco chairman and chief executive officer John Chambers definitely isn’t a glass half empty guy. In a recent piece in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Chambers called the present economic…
P&G Pulling Tags on Promotional Displays
With all the performance issues related to radio frequency identification technology, the best information in the world won’t do any good if there is a lack of human execution based…
Founder’s Sons Plan to Revive Mervyns
Three sons of the founder of Mervyns have purchased the department store’s name, intellectual property and online properties with plans to revive the brand. What do you think of…
Astroturfing: Fake Reviews Hit Blogs
In these days when anyone and everyone can get online to share their opinions, with widely divergent degrees of honesty, manufacturers are recognizing that employees plugging their brands need to…
CSD: Divine Disruption
At around 8 a.m. on a weekday, customers are lined six deep in front of the only open register at your convenience store. The line has screeched to a halt…
Microsoft to Launch Retail Stores
Borrowing a page from Apple’s playbook, Microsoft plans to open Microsoft-branded retail stores. Although details were limited, Microsoft said the stores’ purpose will be to “create deeper engagement with consumers…
Starbucks Rolling Out Instant Coffee
Instant coffee is for amateurs, right? Don’t real coffee drinkers grind the beans from fresh and go to the coffee pot or preferably the French press from there? Starbucks is…
Indiaretailing.com: The Drastic Plastic
They can be seen everywhere. Rolled and stuffed into a shelf at a grocery store, while carrying the newly bought clothes from a branded showroom; covering the dustbins, clogging roadside…
Some Good News for Retail
It didn’t take long for economists to throw cold water on the notion of a near-term recovery for retail but, at least for January, the numbers were promising. According to…
Trading Partners Try to Barter Each Other Up
A recent piece in The New York Times pointed to a growing trend in Russia. Companies struggling with diminished cash flow and/or overstocks are looking to barter with other businesses…
Whole Foods CEO Espouses ‘Conscious Capitalism’
Is the pursuit of profits for its own sake is a fruitless endeavor? That appears to be the opinion of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. However, to achieve profits in…
Financial Transparency Needed in Challenging Times
With rumors flying daily, retailers need to be more forthcoming in providing details of their financial condition to vendors. This is particularly important as these rumors can push a retailer…
