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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Wal-Mart Cheered for Slowing Down
Many on Wall Street are applauding Wal-Mart’s announcement last week that it would cut back on new store openings. The announcement was actually Wal-Mart’s second in the past year, signaling…
R&FF Retailer: Hispanic Foods Move Beyond Hot & Spicy
The days of marketing to Hispanic shoppers by hanging a fake pinata from the ceiling and building an end-cap of tacos are long gone. Not only is the Latino share…
Giant to Card for OTC Remedies with DXM
Giant Food of Landover has joined a host of other retailers that have chosen not to sell OTC cough/cold remedies containing dextromethorphan (DXM) to anyone under the age of 18…
Supervalu and Albertsons Proving a Good Fit
A year after acquiring Albertsons, Supervalu’s numbers are looking good and indications are that better times lay ahead. So, what is Supervalu’s secret? According to a report by the Minneapolis…
Targeting Male Grocery Shoppers
While some men are as savvy in shopping the supermarket as any women, a large group are confused, lost and anxiety-ridden, according to Retail Forward. TNS Retail Forward’s Shopper Perspectives…
Ace Hardware Tops in Making DIY Customers Happy
J.D. Power and Associates asked 16,239 consumers who bought a home improvement product or service within the past year to rate the retailer where they made the purchase and Ace…
Circuit City Looking to Cut Its Way to Success
First, Circuit City cut prices on big screen televisions during last year’s Christmas holiday. Then the company decided it needed to lay off 3,400 of its highest paid and, some…
New Growth for Old Categories
There is new life in some large, long-established categories, according to presentations at a recent editor’s briefing by Procter & Gamble (a RetailWire sponsor) in Cincinnati. What big retail categories…
Retailers Battling Organized Crime Rings
Organized bands of criminals are stealing retailers and ultimately consumers blind. That’s the bottom line of a new study released by the National Retail Federation. How aware are retailers of…
Retailer Targets Really Big Consumers
The Casual Male Retail Group sees an extremely large market opportunity selling products designed for extremely large people. The company is launching its LivingXL catalog and online site and is…
Chinese Make a Brutal Point on Food and Drug Safety
China has a lot riding on consumer confidence. Losing newly won global markets could be disastrous. So the recent scandals about melamine infecting pet food and animals entering the human…
Levi’s to Stand Alone
Levi’s is looking to roll out new standalone stores sporting new styles so the company may once again establish itself as the jeans that teenage girls most want to wear…
Is it Time for the FDA to Regulate Tobacco?
An editorial in the Daytona Beach News-Journal is pretty direct in making its point. “It boggles the imagination that the FDA can pull a drug like Celebrex after it is…
Pharma TV
European countries do not permit drug companies to advertise their wares directly to patients. London’s Guardian, however, earlier last week said four of the largest pharmaceutical companies are proposing to…
CSD: Proprietary Perseverance
There’s more than one way to skin a cat, just like there’s more than one way to run a convenience foodservice program. Some retailers don’t know where to start, so…
Braintrust Query: How can we improve the ethics of HOW we get results, over getting results?
At a recent leadership summit conducted by The Solderquist Center for Leadership and Ethics, attendees heard an earful about the decline in leadership ethics across corporate America, with especially troubling…
How Will Gas Prices Impact Shopping Trip Behavior?
Gas prices are soaring over $3 a gallon in many areas and Americans are finally beginning to react by curtailing automobile usage. As transportation costs rise, other parts of the…
Burberry Follows 80/20 Rule to Growth
It didn’t take but a single trip through one of her company stores to cause Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to question why the retailer carried so much merchandise. According to…
Dude, Wal-Mart’s Selling Dells
Ten days ago, Wal-Mart announced that it was expanding its consumer electronics departments in its stores and would increase its selection of high definition televisions, home theater systems and digital…
The Limits of Loyalty
A recent study by Synovate found 21 percent of shoppers loyal to a particular brand often require it to be on sale before making a purchase, often going to another…
Immigration Debate Heats Up
One week after agreeing to what was heralded as a landmark immigration bill, it now appears that passage of the legislation championed by the Bush administration and Congressional Democrats is…
