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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Helpful Employees at Toys R Us (and similar oxymorons)
If anyone has an understanding of what has made Target successful, it’s probably Gerald Storch, who joined the retail company in 1993 as senior vice president of strategic planning. His…
BrainTrust Query: What if we found a better alternative to slotting fees?
New item slotting fees have been described as a “crutch” and a “necessary evil” for product suppliers. In a 2003 report on “Slotting Allowances in the Retail Grocery Industry,” the…
Generic Drugs and Private Label Products: Loss of Innovation?
The rise of private label products in the CPG industry, combined with the growth of generic drug alternatives, have many concerned about losing the economic motivation for new product innovation…
Business Leaders Say U.S. is Unprepared for a (gulp) ‘Cyber-Katrina’
“Significant gaps exist in the response plans of the U.S. government and the private sector for reconstituting the Internet in the event of an unprecedented massive Internet disruption.” If this…
BrainTrust Query: What are we going to do with all that RFID data?
People are having lots of discussions about RFID technologies and the challenges associated with capturing the serial numbers of containers encoded in their RFID tags. Most of the talk…
Organic Dairy Suppliers Struggle to Meet Demand and Live Up to Their Image
“Be careful what you wish for” would have been an apt warning for the producers of organic dairy products. According to the Organic Trade Association, the sector has grown 24…
Reflection, Who’s Got Time for @$%&^ Reflection?
If you meet with retailing industry execs, or if you are one, you’ve no doubt noticed the “Blackberryization” of the industry. It seems that everyone has one and that many…
BrainTrust Query: Is Amazon.com’s Grocery Beta a Harbinger of Trade Promotions to Come?
A few days ago, James Tenser’s email included an unusual offer from Amazon.com – a $10 promotional credit on a purchase of $29 or more worth of Harmony snacks. First…
The Perils of Competing with Discounters
What happens when a retailer decides to target more affluent customers, because sales are down and they’re worried about Wal-Mart and other discounters?? If you’re Zales jewelers, nothing good. …
J.Crew Turns Around and Heads into an IPO
In what is expected to be the biggest retail IPO since 2002 when Petco went public, J.Crew is preparing to hit the NYSE big board under the ticker symbol JCG…
R&FF Retailer Cover Story: Do We Expect Too Much of Brokers?
Everybody wants to get the right products on the right shelf at the right time, with the right merchandising support. It’s just that nobody wants to pay to get it…
Three Reasons Why Digital Music Sales are Slipping (…if, in fact, that’s what’s happening)
As reported by the Union-Tribune of San Diego, the first whiff of a slowdown in the growth of digital music sales may be in the air. Reports from both the…
Consumers Aren’t Drinking Like They Used to…Carbonated Beverages, That Is
As everyone in the retailing industry must know by now, sales of carbonated beverages are off. According to recent Morgan Stanley research by analyst Bill Pecoriello as reported in Ad…
BrainTrust Query: How do we make the ‘Store as Media’ opportunity real?
The “Store as Media” concept is rapidly gaining traction. It’s tantalizing premise is that every communication opportunity within the store is actually one piece of an overarching media toolbox –…
CEO’s are Overpaid – Get Over It
A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute showed, that in 2005, the average CEO in the U.S. earned 262 times the pay of the average worker, and made more…
Home Depot’s New Plan to Get Employee’s ‘Juiced’ for Customer Service
Home Depot is taking an unusually direct approach to the challenge of getting superior customer service out of its employees. Its new “Orange Juiced” program earmarks rewards of up to…
How Hispanics Learn Unhealthy Eating in the U.S.
One could argue that Hispanics arrive in this country with an inherent orientation towards healthy foods and that, indeed, greater exposure to packaged and fast foods lead their food choices…
If Marketers Are So Smart…
“Gut feel” is out and measurement is in. So, with all these new tools and insights, things should be just peachy in the marketing department, right? Wrong. According to a…
Lord & Taylor Gets On with Its Life
As expected, Federated Department Stores announced yesterday that it will sell its Lord & Taylor chain to NRDC Equity Partners and Apollo Real Estate Advisors for $1.2 Billion in cash…
R&FF Retailer Cover Story: Whither SKU Rationalization?
Thom Blischok, president of Global Retail Solutions and Strategic Consulting for Information Resources, Inc., figures today’s supermarkets are over-SKUd by about 25-30 percent. SKU rationalization is high on priority lists…
Geeks in ‘Da House
At a recent Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit, top execs at Office Depot and Staples were asked about their strategies relative to high-tech customer service. They disagreed on staffing approach…
