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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
The Shopping Cart Differentiator
Competition between retailers for consumer dollars is intense, especially when high-spending families with children are involved. Every retailer is looking for any advantage they can get, even including shopping carts…
Tropicana Rolls Out Light ‘n Healthy OJ
Tropicana has rolled out a new low-calorie orange juice that it hopes will help it recapture weight and carb watchers. Will Light ‘n Healthy be a winner for Tropicana and…
Honey, They’ve Shrunk the iPod
Attendees of Steve Jobs’ keynote address at the Macworld convention in San Francisco could not be blamed for wondering where the Mac went in the speech by Apple Computer’s chief…
Study: Kids Put on Six Pounds in Fast Food Annually
A study of 6,212 children between the ages of 4 and 19 across the country has determined the average child puts on six extra pounds a year eating fast food…
Consumer Holiday Spending Up 5.5 Percent
According to Chicago-based ShopperTrak, consumer spending for the 2003 holiday season was up 5.5 percent over the same period the year prior. Although, as a piece in the Boston Globe…
Save-A-Lot To Take On HEB and W-M
San Antonio has only seemed big enough for two grocery store competitors in recent years. There’s H.E. Butt and Wal-Mart Supercenters and, if you’re store isn’t flying under one of…
Kmart Turns A Profit!
Perhaps the nicest news coming out of this past holiday season was this: Kmart made a profit of $200 million from merchandise sales in its stores during November and December,…
Chain Chickens Out on Beef Campaign
Chick-fil-A has decided to temporarily postpone the newest ad campaign in a nine-year market program that features a cow telling consumers to “Eat Mor Chikin”. Was it a smart idea…
Low-Carbs Brewing Big Beer Sales
Brewers were hoping to attract new consumers to the beer category when they jumped on the low-carb bandwagon. It’s still, perhaps, too early to tell if much headway is being…
2004 Calls For New Tactics
An article in The McKinsey Quarterly, 2004 Number 1, suggests an improving economy will pose new challenges to companies that have been in cutback mode over the past several years…
New Year’s Wish List for the Retailing Industry
Building on George Anderson’s fine summary of 2003’s big stories in retailing followed by Michael Banks’ tongue-in-cheek review of the year past, RetailWire’s Al McClain thought he’d take a whack…
Miller High Life Goes For 100 Year Makeover
Miller High Life may be celebrating its 100 birthday today but it is determined to feel 75 again. Carl Cahill, senior brand manager for Miller Brewing’s High Life told the…
Wal-Mart’s Flattery Aims to Capture Kmart Shoppers
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery than Kmart may be receiving admiration from an unlikely source — Wal-Mart. A New York Times report says Wal-Mart is ramping up…
The Top Dozen Stories of 2003
The year was certainly eventful for those working in retailing and related industries. Here are RetailWire’s picks for the top dozen stories of 2003. What do you think were the…
The Seniors’ Market
Adeg Aktiv Markt is not your average supermarket. It is Europe’s first market designed specifically for consumers 50 years of age and older. What changes do you expect to see…
Mad Cow Update
Meat from the dairy cow found last week with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as Mad Cow Disease, has been distributed to eight states in the western U.S. and…
Parmalat Founder Arrested
Calisto Tanzi, the founder of Parmalat who was arrested in Italy yesterday on charges he illegally manipulated the share price of his company’s stock and lied to regulators, must be…
Turning a Business Around, Nordstrom-Style
Three years ago when Blake, Peter and Erik Nordstrom took over management of the department store chain named after their family, there weren’t many outside the company who thought they…
Pizza Hut’s Prez Has Big Plans
Peter Hearl, president of Pizza Hut, wants Americans to know he doesn’t have a speech impediment. He’s from Australia. A story in the Dallas Morning News, said Mr. Hearl, Aussie…
Duane Reade Sold, Being Taken Private
It was announced yesterday that Duane Reade’s board of directors voted in favor of selling the business to the private equity firm, Oak Hill Capital Partners, for approximately $415 million…
USDA Announces Discovery of Mad Cow Disease
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced yesterday that the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) also known as mad cow disease was discovered in an adult Holstein cow…
