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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Burkle Getting Busy
Billionaire Ron Burkle and his private equity group, Yucaipa Cos., have been very busy on the deal front. As reported in two separate articles on MarketWatch.com and the Los Angeles…
Will $7 Million More Protect the Food Supply
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns pledged an additional $7 million to help protect the nation’s food supply in front of 2,000 food manufacturers, food processors, restaurant executives and food…
Teamsters Take Shot at Wal-Mart
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) are not the only union looking to organize Wal-Mart employees. The Warehouse Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has launched a Web…
Brits Leaving Supermarkets Behind
New research from Mintel says British consumers are increasingly moving away from supermarkets to do their food shopping in the traditional, small grocery store. Do you see a similar movement…
Retailers Seek Converts
Millions of dollars are spent every year trying to get customers inside retail stores. But every day, sales are being lost because of poor customer service and lack of employee…
Brands Unite In Sears/Kmart Deal
When shareholders of Sears, Roebuck and Co. vote tomorrow to approve the retailer’s merger with Kmart and form Sears Holdings Corp., they will be betting that the combined appeal of…
Independents Get Weird to Compete
One person’s unique is another’s weird. Either way, it’s not the same-old-same-old and independent retailers in small and medium-size markets across the U.S. want consumers to know that their businesses…
Having a Spanish-Speaking Organization Means Changing the Rules of HR
With the ever-increasing need to employ Spanish-speakers, HR departments are being challenged to find Hispanics who are fluent in both Spanish and English, who have the educational background, and who…
Survivor: Salem, Oregon
They are a tribe of survivors. For over 50 years, Greenbaum’s Quilted Forest, Cooke Stationery, Jackson Jewelers, Les Newman’s, Saffron Supply Co., Olson Florist, Court Street Lunch and Whitlock’s Vacuum…
The Key To Retail Success: Underpaid Executives
For a retail grocery chain as successful as Publix Super Markets, it sure doesn’t pay its top executives very well. At least not when you compare the salaries and bonuses…
Trade Dollars Not Very Loyal
The PROMO Xtra Trade Promotion 2005 study by Cannondale Associates measured a decline in the money consumer packaged goods companies spend on trade promotions and an increase in their spending…
English-Only Sign Gets Manager in Trouble
A 20-year old manager of a Dunkin’ Donuts in Yonkers, NY may have been doing the right thing when he responded to complaints about workers being disrespectful by speaking in…
Deal Breathes New Life Into Toy Biz
Jim Silver, publisher of the industry magazine Toy Book, thinks the deal by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Bain Capital Partners LLC, and Vornado Realty Trust to buy Toys ‘R’…
Rebates May Come Back to Bite Retailers
A new consent order announced on March 11 by the Federal Trade Commission says retailers may be held responsible if manufacturers do not honor rebate programs. Should retailers be responsible…
Breaking the Code and Confidence
On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported the breaking of a popular encryption technique used by many Internet applications to ensure data integrity. ChoicePoint, the personal data aggregator, and DSW,…
What Can a Dead Armadillo Teach Retailers?
As America’s self-proclaimed #1 populist, former two-time Texas Agriculture Commissioner, author and radio personality Jim Hightower has said, “There’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and…
Going, Going, Sold for $5.7 Billion
The New York Times is reporting that a group including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain Capital Partners and Vornado Realty Trust have agreed on a deal to buy Toys ‘R’ Us…
Home Depot Calls Division Presidents Home
The world’s largest do-it-yourself retailer, Home Depot, announced it is moving its Southern, Northern and Western divisional presidents to the company’s Atlanta, Ga. Headquarters. According to a company press release,…
Reality Free TV
Have some advertisers gone too far in presenting a vision of America as a multicultural rainbow that is a far cry from reality? Maybe so, says a recent AP article,…
What the CEO Knew or Should Have Known
The conviction of former WorldCom chief executive Bernard J. Ebbers by a federal jury in New York on charges of fraud and conspiracy appears to take the “I didn’t know”…
Price Isn’t Everything
In the December 2004 Harvard Business Review, Darrell Rigby and Dan Haas of Bain & Company’s Global Retail practice discuss how some retailers are Outsmarting Wal-Mart. According to the…
