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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Mickey Gets Out of Retail
The parent of the successful Children’s Place chain announced yesterday it has reached an agreement to buy Disney Stores. Children’s Place Retail Stores Inc. hopes to close the deal to…
Retailers Drawn Into Meth War
Law enforcement officials will tell you that methamphetamine is everywhere. One reason is that it is easy to make. Its ingredients are found in common products such as over-the-counter cold…
Discounting Assimilation: Are We Really Becoming A Bilingual Nation?
In a piece written last week for the Pacific News Service, Louis E.V. Nevaer, author of “The Rise of the Hispanic Market in the United States,” claims that we are…
Coutu Feeling Good About Eckerd
Michael Coutu, chief executive officer for the American division of the Jean Coutu Group, is feeling good about the progress being made to integrate Eckerd drugstores into its system. “The…
Hold the Service, Extra Discounts Please
Those heeding the biblical call to “do unto others as you would have done unto you” might just be the best gift givers this holiday season, according to a study…
Electronic Shelf Label Pilot Announced for Major U.S. Chain
Pricer recently announced that “one of the largest retail chains in the U.S.,” as yet to be named, has decided to pilot Pricer’s ESL (Electronic Shelf Labels) system for a…
The Currency of Service
Polly Flinn, senior vice president of Convenience Operations for BP Products North America, told an audience at this year’s National Association of Convenience Stores’ (NACS) convention that the gas retailer…
Former Haves Becoming Have Nots in Suburbia
A USA Today report says that the numbers of poor, primarily working poor, in the suburbs is catching up with cities as individuals find themselves squeezed out of the decent…
Kmart Hires New Prez/CEO to Build Image
Yesterday, Kmart announced it had hired Aylwin Lewis, the now former president and chief multi-branding and operating officer of Yum Brands (Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, A&W All-American Food and…
Niemann Foods’ Secret to Success
Ask members of the Neimann family, founders of the Niemann Foods supermarket chain, what the secrets are to their company’s success and they’re likely to tell you it’s a willingness…
Sell-and-Run Stores a Hit with Shoppers
Most people think of stores that open one day and close a few months later as a failure, but as companies from Apple Computer to Target can attest, temporary stores…
Give Shoppers Online Information to Gain Offline Sales
Internetretailer.com reports on the latest American Interactive Consumer Survey done by The Dieringer Group on shopper use of the Internet and consumer spending habits. “The data confirm that the Internet’s…
A&F to Boycott Australian Wool
Abercrombie & Fitch is no stranger to controversy, but the retail clothing chain has decided to sidestep one regarding the handling of Australian sheep with an announcement the it would…
Sweetbay to Try and Build Loyalty Without a Card
Sweetbay, Kash n’ Karry’s new supermarket banner, has said it will not offer a loyalty card to customers. The decision to forego a card program was made because of the…
No Store, No Union
What good is a labor union to workers if the store they work in closes? That is the not so subtle question a Wal-Mart spokesperson put to employees at the…
Starbucks Comes Up With Another New Drink
Starbucks is hoping to hit gold again with it newest new thing, a non-coffee drink named after an Aztec goddess and described as a drinkable dessert. Why has Starbucks been…
Best Buy’s Customer Centricity Experiment
To its critics, the notion that Best Buy has found a way to become a customer centric organization is, to put it less than politely, laughable. But, critics or not,…
Setting the Standards: Is Patience a Virtue?
For years, the members of the retail supply chain have worked on technical standards ranging from Bar Codes (a huge success), to EDI, CPFR and now, ebXML and RFID. Are…
Record Labels Getting Squeezed by Wal-Mart
Record label executives are unhappy about the pressure being put on them by Wal-Mart to lower prices on CDs but none of them wants to go on the record for…
Time To Deal With RFID Concerns Is Now
A report released last week by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), Radio Frequency Identification: Little Devices Making Big Waves, says RFID technology has the potential to deliver numerous benefits in…
Swaying the Hispanic Vote – Integrated Hispanic Marketing at Its Best
A recent article in Marketing to Emerging Majorities challenges marketers who are still hemming and hawing about whether or not Hispanics represent a strong enough market to warrant significant ad…
