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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
ARTS at NRF
An update for the Association of Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) was given at NRF on January 14th. Over the past year, ARTS has made much progress in master data maintenance,…
Amazon and TRU After the Split
Once they were online partners but that time seems long ago. Now, Amazon.com and Toys R Us are fighting it out online for customers searching for the hottest toys. Toys…
No Blank Left Unfilled by Ads
Space abhors a vacuum and evidently marketers have similar sentiments about blank spaces without some sort of commercial message. Today, brand marketers are looking to find a way to break…
CVS CEO Looks to Build an Empire
Since 1998 when he took over as the chief of CVS, Tom Ryan has been focused on growing the company. Under his leadership, CVS has aggressively gone after acquisitions of…
Delhaize Chains Go Interactive with Circulars
Food Lion, Hannaford Bros., Bloom and Sweetbay are going live with a new interactive online circular program that allows customers of the Delhaize America chains to search weekly specials and…
A Brave New World for Cosmetics
The world cosmetics market is coming under scrutiny as concern over environmental issues and product safety has been rising. Historically, the U.S. cosmetics business has been nearly self-policing, but that…
Charley and Me
It’s nice to look back on the good old days for some lessons that can be applied today. Like back in 1976, when every time I came into the Foodtown…
Americans Put Food to Good Use
Americans are far better at putting food to good use than are the British. Grocery stores (and food manufacturers) in the U.S. are big supporters of America’s Second Harvest, helping…
Whistle While You Work and Have Fun
Who do you want to work for if you’re in the retailing or consumer products manufacturing businesses? Based on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2007 list, you’d…
CSD: On the Road with Kwik Trip
Kwik Trip Inc. operates more than 350 stores under brands such as Kwik Trip, Kwik Star and Tobacco Outlet throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. Plus, it operates a 150,000 square-foot…
BrainTrust Query: Who and what will it take to capitalize on the capabilities that new in-store media technologies promise?
Digital signage opened the door to the notion of targeting, dayparting and, to a certain degree, measuring the impact of in-store messages. With its flexible capabilities for addressability, the industry…
The CEO Show
Let’s dig into the bag of popular American sports wisdom to help provide some insights into the role of CEOs in retailing today. There’s always the one about it…
Crazy Idea Might Work for Wal-Mart
It’s still early in 2007 but we may have already found the winner of the “crazy like a fox” award. Mark Husson, a retail analyst with HSBC, told Fortune…
Supply Chain Digest: Top Ten Supply Chain Trends of 2006
Recently, Dan Gilmore highlighted many of the important stories Supply Chain Digest covered in 2006. As promised, he is now offering more general thoughts on the top trends in supply…
Bank on Wal-Mart and Home Depot
With the Federal Deposit and Insurance Corporation (FDIC) moratorium on deposit insurance applications about at an end, a decision may finally be made on Wal-Mart, Home Depot and applications made…
Long Live the Brands (But Which Ones?)
As the soon to be released book, Private Label Strategy: How to Meet the Store Brand Challenge points out, national brands had their “golden age” in the U.S. around the…
New Products Rolling Out Naturally
New products are the lifeblood of the food business. But along with the value of new items comes the reality that the vast majority will no longer be on store…
Costco Holds to Member Friendly Return Policy
Costco, it is well documented, is not the typical retailer. While all claim to be focused on the customer, it is one retailer that demonstrates that commitment in clear and…
BrainTrust Query: Does ‘problem-solving’ solve problems?
You’d think we’d have figured most everything out by now, wouldn’t you? Here’s the problem: fixing problems isn’t going to fix the problem. Instead, Ian Percy suggests, we need to…
BJ’s Getting Out of Pharmacy Biz
BJ’s Wholesale Club has decided to close all of its pharmacies. The reasons included the company getting into pharmacy at a later stage than its primary competitors and not having…
A Vision of Christmas Future?
Holiday season predictions from the National Retail Federation were for total sales to rise five percent to $457.5 billion in 2006, the lowest increase since 2002. In a number of…
