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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
CPGmatters: Trading Partners Call for Commitment to Best Practices
Are betters days ahead for store brands? That depends on trading partners. Executives attending the 2008 Annual Meeting & Leadership Conference of the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) in Tucson,…
Menards’ Takes Unusual Approach to Build Business
While many in the home improvement sector wait for some sign that the market is picking up, Menards seems intent on creating opportunities around its stores. According to a piece…
Wal-Mart Puts Heat on Rx and OTC Competitors
Wal-Mart, the company that brought you $4 generics, is making business a bit more challenging for competitors with a new program designed to offer consumers even better deals on both…
BrainTrust Query: Is the digital profiling of in-store shoppers a recipe for privacy disaster?
Gaze tracking technology is becoming a very exciting option for providing shopper insights such as how many people walked by a screen or display, how many looked, at what and…
The High (Environmental) Cost of Bioplastics
First the wonders of biofuel have begun to appear less wonderful. Now bioplastic material, created as an antidote to the oil-based plastics so many people have learned to hate, is…
GHQ: Food Lion Roars Down New Path
Food Lion is a different company today than the one Rick Anicetti took over as president and CEO five years ago. Back then, the chain focused more on sales, profits…
Marketing to the Relatively Well Off
At a presentation given last week to the Florida Luxury Marketing Council in Coral Gables, Florida, Al McClain found out that a million just ain’t what it used to be…
Home Depot Shuttering Stores
As an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article points out, 2008 has been a bad year for Home Depot and there’s still a long way to go. Yesterday, the chain followed up previous…
A&P: Formatted for Success
Targeted formats have been and will continue to be key to the success of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Co. (A&P) in the New York metro market, the company’s executive…
RSR Research: The Economy – How Can You Be Sad Sitting on an Orange Couch?
Conventional wisdom has it that, in uncertain times, consumers hold off on discretionary purchases until the better times (hopefully) ahead. One would be hard pressed to find something more easily…
Shopping Online to Look Like a Celebrity
Online fashion retailer asos.com has built its business on one simple principle: helping consumers dress like celebrities. The idea, as The Guardian explained, is to have models parading down the…
Safeway’s FoodFlex Tool Gets a Workout
Some reviews have arrived for FoodFlex, Safeway’s new online calorie-counting tool. Accessed at www.safeway.com/foodflex, the interactive tool presents loyalty cardholders with a nutritional snapshot of past purchases, as well as…
Kraft Keeping Brands From Getting Over-Extended
There’s a certain comfort in brand extensions, yet they often bring too little in the way of incremental sales as consumers trade-off within a product line. In the worst-case, a…
Harmons Delivers Different
Harmons is out to be different. The 13-store Utah-based grocery chain isn’t big enough to overwhelm the competition with its buying clout and low-ball pricing so its management is focused…
Tesco Measures Its Carbon Footprint
Tesco has announced that it is finally getting underway, in a small way, on its pledge to provide item labels that quantify the impact of products on the environment from…
The Value of Perks
While some may be driven by promises of big raises or bonuses, small perks are the primary motivators for many employees. What’s worse is that taking the free coffee or…
Gucci Shifts Down Market
Can a luxury brands be too luxurious? Gucci believes so. The Italian brand blamed its rare sales decline in the first quarter on too ritzy advertising and plans to market…
Mars and Wrigley in Big Candy Deal
Two of the great family-run brands in the confectionary business are soon to become one (assuming regulatory approval) and the question is what will that mean for competitors in the…
BrainTrust Query: Where are the In-Store Implementation Best Practices?
The In-Store Implementation Sharegroup has just released its first work product, a working paper, titled In-Store Implementation: Current Status and Future Solutions. More than a year in the making, the…
Ahold’s Strategy: Less is More
Stop & Shop and Giant Food are in the process of delisting large numbers of products as part of the Ahold chain’s Value Improvement Program (VIP). The rationale is…
Customers Cashing In
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has reported that cash is now used for 60 percent of all transactions, up from 54 percent last year. Measured by value, cash is used…
