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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Over-Promising and Under-Delivering
Remember the standard advice “under-promise and over-deliver”? It’s always sounded good to me. But, many marketing campaigns and slogans these days have little to do with the actual experience of…
Wal-Mart Focuses on Big Shoplifting Fish
As the largest retailer in the world, Wal-Mart is one very big target for the professional criminal class and, as such, the chain has developed sophisticated methods of dealing with…
CVS Gets Into Quick Clinic Biz
A report by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis/St. Paul says CVS will purchase MinuteClinic, the largest chain of in-store medical clinics in the U.S. The purchase, reportedly for $170…
Another Online Grocery Service Bites the Dust
The consortium led by the Cerberus Group that took part of the Albertsons chain private is closing down the company’s online grocery and home delivery service. Speculation is the supermarket…
Frequenting Target: Is More Too Much?
Retail Forward released some key highlights yesterday from its ShopperScape-based report, Bull’s-eye on the Target Shopper, and headlined the finding that the cheap chic leader is “the most-shopped retailer in…
Labels Don’t Deter Poor Food Choices
New research reveals most American consumers read food labels for nutritional information. Many, however, do not let that get in the way of what they’re going to buy. According to…
Ordinance Called Big Box Mistake
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association says Chicago would be making a big mistake if it mandates that big box retailers such as Wal-Mart meet wage and benefit requirements to operate…
BrainTrust Query: Do you believe in company Karma?
Last week, Alloy Media + Marketing released results of their fifth annual College Explorer Study, conducted by Harris Interactive, which unveils that environmental and social responsibility influences college market spending…
Big Boxes Hope to Clean Up in Carwash Biz
Wal-Mart, Costco and Home Depot are among the retail powerhouses looking at the potential of automated carwashes to bring in consumers and grow their already impressive top and bottom line…
Unions Looking to Make Retailers Pay
Years of futility trying to organize non-union retailers along with wage and benefit concessions made to companies with unions helped bring about the recently formed alliance of labor organizations known…
BrainTrust Query: How can we improve the dreaded checkout experience?
Grocers and other retailers are dedicating tremendous resources and brainpower to enhancing the overall shopping experience, but what happens at the checkout and beyond seems to be taken for granted…
Abraham Lincoln’s Leadership Genius
Abraham Lincoln is considered by many to be the greatest president in the history of the United States. In the recently published, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham…
Grocers Look to Takeout the Competition
Harry Balzer of NPD Group knows what he’s talking about. When asked by the Orlando Sentinel if Americans (most of them anyway) want to prepare meals at home anymore, he…
CSD Cover Story: Keeping Retail Employees Safe
In the gas/c-store channel, Western U.S.-based Tesoro Corp. has undergone a transformation through the years from a small local refiner to a multi-state marketer that’s willing to take risks to…
Is High Fructose Corn Syrup Really That Bad?
Among the major culprits blamed for the alarming rise of obesity in the United States is the addition of high fructose corn syrup in a wide variety of foods and…
Lead, Follow or Get Out of Microsoft’s Way
The New York Times, citing anonymous sources this week, has tried to confirm rumors about Microsoft developing a hand-held multimedia player to rival the iPod. Word has it that the…
GHQ Cover Story: Collaborating for Food Safety
Technological advances, educational programs, media attention and consumer outreach have created a consciousness about food safety that protects both the food and the buyer. The consensus is that the…
Seeing Where Location, Location, Location is Heading
Lots of factors go into decisions about where to locate new stores, but looking for fast-growing markets is surely part of the mix. According to a new Wharton study, the…
China Tightens the Leash on Foreign Retail Investors
Perhaps the only market on earth big enough to satisfy the Multinational chains’ collective appetite to expand resides in China, home of the fastest growing retail sector on earth. …
PLBuyer Cover Story: Is There a Place for Private Label Organics?
According to ACNielsen, 6 to 15 percent of U.S. consumers say they purchase natural and organic regularly, and those numbers are expected to grow. So where does private label fit…
David vs. Goliath: Lessons from Independent Restaurants
Remember the old adage that if you were going to be a bully, you’d better be really tough and/or smart, because sooner or later you would run into someone bigger…
