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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Markdowns Increase Traffic, Reduce Margins
Many retail industry analysts believe higher sales reported for the holiday season may have come at a price — lower profits for stores. Will the 2004 holiday season have an…
Biker Loyalty
Ducati is working to make their brand one that customers keep for life. Ducati’s objective is to not just sell another motorcycle, but initiate a new member into the tribe…
Familiar Story: Sales Down, Profits Up at Kmart
The final two months of 2004 produced financial results for Kmart that followed a familiar pattern since the chain emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Same-store sales were down and…
Second Cow Tests Positive for BSE in Canada
Just days after the United States announced plans to reopen its market to Canadian beef, a cow from a herd in Alberta tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or…
Office Depot Plans To Take Care of Business Customers
Office Depot stakeholders can’t be happy with the office supply retailer’s performance in 2004 that saw sales grow two percent in the first nine months of the year and only…
2005: The Year Consumers Spend Less
Higher prices for goods, rising interest rates and personal debt are going to cause consumers to reign in their spending in 2005, according to Standard & Poor’s. What economic and…
U.S. To Let Canadian Cattle Back In
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is partially lifting a ban on importing live cattle from Canada that was imposed when a case of mad cow disease was discovered in an…
Adults Playing Hooky
According to a Harris Interactive survey, one in five adults in the U.S. have called in sick to work when they weren’t. Some say that the definition of a sick…
Burger Bellies to Get Bally Treatment
Yum Brands has a couple of wishes to start the New Year. It wants more people to eat at its restaurants, and wants those same consumers to go to the…
Manufacturer, Wholesaler, Retailers Sued in Motrin Case
The parents of a seven-year-old girl filed a suit against the maker of the pain reliever Motrin, McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals, as well the drug wholesalers, McKesson Corp. and…
McD’s Considering Putting Chickens to Sleep
The animal rights group PETA said it is encouraged by McDonald’s decision to investigate switching to suppliers who use a more humane approach to slaughtering chickens. Are restaurants and others…
Wal-Mart Under Attack
Union organizers, trial attorneys, former employees, historic preservations, documentary makers and some elected officials are among the many who would love to see the world’s largest retailer stumble, if not…
It Takes Two to Make a Merger
The year 2004 may not go down as the most active merger and acquisition year in U.S. retail history but consolidation was clearly on the minds of many as Kmart/Sears,…
Home Depot Brings Appliance Biz Online
Home Depot is pleased with the response its gotten from consumers looking to buy washers, dryers, refrigerators, stoves and other household appliances in its stores and now it’s going to…
Retail 2004: Boring It Was Not
With just a few days left before the calendar flips over for a new year, George Anderson presents this recap of some of the prominent stories and issues that affected…
We Don’t Talk Anymore
Sociologists and others are concerned that the modern reliance on technology-based self-service is eroding people’s ability to communicate with one another. Others say less idle chatter and unpleasant experiences with…
Loyalty and Learning
Student-teacher Georgina Smith was passing her local Clean Rite Laundromat and saw lots of children running around, playing videogames, or just doing nothing at all. Seeing an opportunity in the…
Integrative Pharmacies Fill Need
According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, companies such as California-based Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy and Elephant Pharmacy as well Ritzman Natural Health Pharmacy out of Akron, Ohio, are…
Price Cuts Killed The Video Store
Blockbuster just cut the monthly fee for its online video rental service and one competitor thinks that is one of the best presents he and his company could have ever…
The Spirit of Sales Excuses: Past, Present and Future
The scene opens with a white, male chairman, chief executive and president of a very large retail chain, sleeping alone in bed on Christmas Eve. A noise outside his bedroom…
Retailers Told to Put Christ in Christmas
A group based in California called the Committee to Save Merry Christmas thinks retailers have gone too far in their concerns about making non-Christians feel uncomfortable this time of year…
