RECENT discussions
Discussions
Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Asian Markets Not Just For Asians
Go to Assi Plaza, a 54,000-square-foot Asian market in a suburb outside of Philadelphia, and you will find many shoppers of Asian heritage. Depending on the day, you are likely…
Lands’ End in Reorganization
Speculation that Lands’ End doesn’t fit with Sears and could be subject to a sale or spin off once the merger with Kmart is complete is likely to increase after…
Sideways Means Upward Sales for Pinot Noir
Sideways, the Academy Award nominated film about a couple of guys consuming mass quantities of wine while on a road trip along California’s central coast, is being credited with substantially…
Wal-Mart Cuts Out the Middleman Again
Nobody cuts out costs — or the middleman — like Wal-Mart. In a move reminiscent of what it has done in so many areas before, the world’s largest retailer has…
Winn-Dixie Does the Expected, Files for Chapter 11
It was really never a question of if but when Winn-Dixie would seek to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Now that the question has been answered — Winn-Dixie Stores…
Shopper Wants Fewer Choices
Georgi Davis wonders just how many varieties of lettuce are absolutely essential to have in the produce department. Like others, she sometimes feels overwhelmed by the sheer number of product…
Can’t Help But See TV
If NBC is “Must See TV,” then Wal-Mart’s has the “Can’t Help But See TV” network in its stores, especially since it began replacing the small sets it used to…
Loyalty: There’s the Yub
Internet retailer Buy.com recently, and quietly, launched a companion social networking site call YUB.com. Short for Young Urban Buyers (and conveniently “buy” spelled backward), Yub rewards members for making product…
New Publix Format to Focus on Latinos
With its home base in Florida, Publix knows something about what Latino shoppers want. The supermarket chain intends to put that knowledge to work in a new as yet unnamed…
Shoppers Going Back to the Mall
New numbers from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and anecdotal information from mall operators and retailers suggest that Americans are going back to the mall to shop. Shopping…
Jetsons Have Nothing On This Supercenter
A piece in the Arizona Daily Star says AutoCart, a planned 130,000 square-foot drive-through supercenter to be built in Tucson, Ariz. or Albuquerque, N.M., sounds as if it were straight…
Marketechnics Report: What Do You Mean I Have Dirty Data?
One of the big themes at Marketechnics this year was how to clean up your data. But it may be that companies do not have dirty data, but rather misunderstood…
Marketechnics Report: Not Much New Going On
At the Marketechnics Conference in Washington this week, attendees heard from several innovative retailers in the workshops, and there were some advances on the exhibit floor. But, there wasn’t a…
Circuit City’s Week of Turmoil
The week began for Circuit City with the announcement that a shareholder, Highfields Capital Management, had made an offer to buy the company with the intention of taking it private…
Consumers Hate Spam But Buy Anyway
In the U.S. and elsewhere today, it’s hard to find anyone who will admit they liking getting spam in their email. But, a recent study by Rockbridge Associates said four…
Are Burgers Still King?
It sounds implausible, but will there come a day when McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food hamburger restaurants sell more chicken than beef? Numbers in a USA Today report indicate…
Montana Debates Tax to Achieve Living Wage
Critics of large national and regional retailers have argued that states ultimately pick up the cost for caring for many of the employees of these companies through public assistance programs…
Dinosaurs, Dodo Birds and Department Stores
Annette McEvoy, a retail analyst and president of A. McEvoy & Associates, is among those who believe the prognosis for department stores is grim. “Some of them will not make…
Marketechnics Report: In-store vs. Host-based Systems
The typical supermarket technical environment has been an in-store processor integrated with a point of sale system that managed the customer checkout process. But the Internet and the widespread implementation…
Unhappy Shoppers
According to the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index for retail (online and off) and financial services, consumers’ overall satisfaction level was down last year. This was in direct…
Putting a Stop to Shoppers Shopping Elsewhere
Todd Hale, senior vice president for ACNielsen’s Consumer Insights’ business, writes in the February issue of the e-publication Facts, Figures & the Future that consumers continue to shop at supermarkets…
