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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Penney Tries To Get Back On Target
J.C. Penney’s target consumer for the retailer’s Original Arizona Jean Co. private label clothing line is 17 to 24 year olds. The majority of people actually buying the apparel were…
Plastic or Paper: It’s All Money To Fast Feeders
Welcome to the twenty-first century and the reduced paper society. Fast food operators, the quintessential cash and carry business, are finding that whether payment comes in the form of plastic…
Molson Coors Not A Done Deal, Yet
Although Molson and Adolph Coors announced plans to merge their businesses yesterday, there still remains the possibility the deal may not go through, reports The New York Times. In-fighting within…
How Much Will America Pay for a Cup of Joe?
Starbucks completely changed the notion of how much Americans were willing to pay for a cup of coffee. And the company is not done testing the limits just yet. According…
Fed Chief to Biz: OK To Spend Again
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan understands why businesses may be reluctant to start spending on new systems or hiring permanent employees. He also understands that, if businesses get over their…
Companies Test For Compatibility
A report in the July issue of CFO Magazine, says employers are turning to various forms of personality testing “to ensure that the hires they make are a good fit…
Older Execs Need Not Apply
Forget about the silver lining. As far as some former senior executives in the fifty-something and above age group are concerned, some gray clouds are just that — gray –…
Wal-Mart Tries On(line) Apparel Again
If at first you don’t succeed…Three years after pulling the plug on selling clothing online, Wal-Mart announced it was going to give it another go, just in time for the…
To Organize or Not to Organize Around a Multicultural Strategy
Sears, Roebuck and Co. announced on Friday in the Chicago Tribune that their multicultural marketing group will be disbanded and the individuals in the department will be reassigned to individual…
KFC: Fire Chicken Abusers
An investigator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) videotaped workers at a Pilgrim’s Pride plant in West Virginia, which supplies KFC, abusing chickens prior to slaughter. The…
Costco and Wal-Mart in Political Fight
A Bloomberg report says Costco and Wal-Mart are not only competitors in retailing but in national politics, as well. Wal-Mart, according to the report, gives more money to Republicans than…
SC Cases Raise Questions About Employee Screening
Two separate cases in South Carolina alleging convicted sexual offenders working at Wal-Mart had assaulted children in the store has individuals and child welfare groups calling on the company to…
Call Center Takes Drive-Through Orders
A McDonald’s franchisee in Colorado, said, “I don’t know about tech. I know about people who like to eat hamburgers.” He may not consider himself expert but he hit upon…
SoCal Consumers Prefer Not To Do It Themselves
According to a L.A. Daily News report, consumers in Southern California are not sold on the need for or benefits of self-checkouts and many prefer to wait on lines with…
Using Customer Feedback to Boost Sales
Since adding a section on its Web site called “CustomInk Uncensored” that gives the public access to its customer satisfaction database, personalized T-shirt retailer CustomInk.com counts sales improvement among the…
Pet’s Parents Take Special Care of Kids
It’s not unusual for the owners of a dog or cat in the U.S. to refer to themselves as the pet’s Mom or Dad. Pets-as-family is a common sentiment in…
CRM’s Not For Every Company
Keeping customers loyal is not the goal of customer relationship management (CRM) programs, writes Marco De Veglia of The CRM Group on the Web site, CRMguru.com. Keeping them loyal and…
Martha Stewart Sentenced
Martha Stewart has been hit with a sentence of five months in prison, two years of supervised release and a fine of $30,000 for her ImClone conspiracy conviction. How…
Dollar Stores Resistant To Economic Good Times
Conventional wisdom once held that dollar stores grew quickly because a weak economy and consumer concerns about making ends meet made the format more attractive to shoppers. Adam Bergman, a…
Target Tells Employees To Dress For Success
Target prefers employees at its headquarters in Minneapolis wear suits, ties and generally more formal business attire. That’s why the company is doing away with its full-time business casual dress…
Recalls To Cost More At Albertsons
Albertsons says the cost of taking product off store shelves whenever there is a product recall has become too high and from now on manufacturers are going to have to…
