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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Omaha Steaks Raise the Rent on Prepared Meals
Omaha Steaks is at the forefront of a new trend, which food industry experts say is invigorating the $85 billion home-meal replacement market and positioning it for a larger share…
Nestle Increases Its Share of Global Ice Cream
Nestle SA has agreed to take control of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Inc. by combining its U.S. ice cream business with the U.S. market leader in a transaction worth about…
Soymilk Maker Looks to Healthy Market Opportunity
SoyToy is a new product that aims to capitalize on the rapidly growing soy-foods trend in the U.S. Will mainstream consumers be attracted to homemade beverage machines such as the…
Vacationers Bring Work Along
Despite the drawbacks, taking work along on vacation is a new fact of life for many people. Do you continue to do business while on vacation? Should businesses discourage this…
Survey Says Consumers Are Brand Loyal
Nearly half of respondents to a new GMA survey (49 percent), which explores how national brands influence purchasing decisions among Americans, indicate that a familiar brand name was the first…
Associates’ Smiles Promote Sales
More than 4,000 retail executives and associates surveyed recently echoed the notion that to be a success in retail, sales associates have to have direct contact with customers. How can…
Casey’s Earnings Increase Threefold
Casey’s General Stores reports increased basic earnings for the fourth quarter and for the entire year. Earnings were nine cents per share compared with three cents for the last quarter…
Heinz Slims Down as Del Monte Bulks Up
H. J. Heinz plans to spin off several lagging brands including StarKist tuna and 9-Lives cat food to Del Monte Foods in a deal with Del Monte worth about $2.8…
GMA Conference-goers Endorse e-Collaboration
A senior-level manufacturer and retailer panel at GMA’s Executive Conference recommends that the consumer products industry needs to endorse, subscribe to and populate the UCCnet GLOBALregistry(TM) in order to reduce…
More Men Take on Grocery Shopping and Cooking
A growing number of men are assuming the household food-buying responsibility. As more women work full-time, many men are pitching in with weekly grocery trips and cooking to rebalance the…
Biotech Wins PR Coup and Bush Administration Support
The biotechnology industry reached a controversial victory when a leading scientific journal retreated from a study it had published alleging that crops in Mexico were contaminated with genetically modified organisms…
Albertson’s Reassures Investors
In an effort to calm nervous investors after Safeway’s announcement sparked a sell-off in shares of supermarket operators, Albertson’s says that it is on track to achieve its second-quarter and…
Safeway Shares Drop Severely
Safeway experienced its biggest drop in shares in at least two decades after it lowered profit forecasts for the rest of the year due to restructuring expenses and the growing…
A&P Delays Filing 10-K Again
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.. is further delaying the filing of its annual report because of an internal investigation into the grocery store operator’s accounting practices. This is…
Pathmark Faces Strike
Associates at 55 metro New York Pathmark supermarkets voted Monday night to strike if a new contract deal is not by the end of next week. Can employers and unions…
Workfare Staffing Works
Retailers such as Home Depot are turning to “workfare programs” to fill associate openings in stores, which currently has 700 people on its payroll that came from the federal government’s…
2002 Online Sales to Jump 41%
Online B2C sales will jump 41% to $72.1 billion this year, according to a Shop.org survey of more than 100 retailers. What online retail categories do you think are most…
Retailer Sells Ads to Catalog
An unidentified candy company is reportedly paying Too Inc., a clothing chain, $750,000 for five one-page ads to run in upcoming catalogs. What are the benefits/drawbacks to this strategy?
Pharmacists Go to Church
A new program has pharmacists offering one-on-one sessions on medication to people in places of worship. Are retailers fully leveraging the benefits of pharmacist counseling services to build their whole…
OSHA to Develop Guidelines for Grocery Stores
OSHA announced yesterday that grocery stores and poultry processing will be the focus of the next two sets of industry-specific guidelines to reduce ergonomic-related injuries. Should the ergonomic guidelines developed…
Publix, Ostriches and the Reverse Auction Debate
Last week, Publix announced that it had launched a Web site to support its purchasing and reverse auction program. In 2001, Publix conducted 59 reverse auctions to purchase a…
