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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
CSD: What’s In a Name?
A partner at Pennsylvania-based LMA Architects, Jim Dodrill had been approached by Consumers Petroleum to help create a corporate brand for the company’s dozen or more convenience stores in Connecticut…
BrainTrust Query: Why are European retailers closer than U.S. retailers to achieving the optimal demand-driven supply chain?
Due to limited and costly space, many European retailers have focused on demand-driven, computer generated ordering processes that they see as bringing them closer to achieving an optimal supply chain…
Is Now a Good Time for Retailers to Build?
The economy is slumping and retailers, at least some, are still opening new store locations. Does that make sense and what will the push to open new units mean for…
Retailers Willing to Deal for Stimulus Checks
Sears and Kmart want your stimulus checks and the chains are willing to sweeten the pot to get them. The retailers announced that consumers who bring their government stimulus checks…
BrainTrust Query: Are frontline employees expendable?
Unless your Unique Selling Proposition or point of difference is Exceptional Customer Service, there’s no reason to sweat it when you lose frontline employees. New employees are excited about their…
Second Hand Bottles Make First Rate Clothes
Coca-Cola’s plastic bottles are being given a new lease on life by a British company. Mark Southcott, who has a chemistry doctorate and a long family tradition of textile innovation,…
Will Wal-Mart Change How Guns Are Sold?
On Monday, Wal-Mart announced that it has adopted a 10-point voluntary code intended to help prevent guns from falling into the hands of criminals. The initiative, the Responsible Firearms Retail…
Prediction Markets Reach Corporate Board Rooms
Companies like Best Buy, General Electric and Hewlett-Packard are using online prediction markets to try to improve forecasting, reduce risk and accelerate innovation by tapping into the collective wisdom of…
PLBuyer: Not Your Grandma’s Private Label
Safeway got a much-needed shot in its private label arm in late 2005, when it hired James White, who previously worked for Nestle Purina and Procter & Gamble, to serve…
Is There No End to Parental Over-Indulgence?
In Parenting, Inc, Pamela Paul dissects what she sees as the over-commercialization of parenting and babyhood. The subtitle of the book conveys her concerns: How We Are Sold On $800…
Is the Proposed Circuit City Deal a Blockbuster?
To most everyone this side of Edward Lampert, the combination of one poorly performing company with another adds up to a really bad deal. Evidently, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes counts…
Glass Half-Full, Half-Empty Scenarios on Tax Refunds and Rebate Checks
One of Wal-Mart’s board of directors is looking for the upcoming economic stimulus rebate checks to provide a “real boost” to sales for the retailer and presumably a few other…
Measuring Inflation By What’s in Our Baskets
Quite apart from functional foods, ready meals, convenience foods, fresh and healthy, free-from or whatever, the contents of the typical British shopping basket have recently changed. The Office of National…
Dove Launches Women’s Website
On the heels of its popular “Campaign for Real Beauty” campaign, Dove has launched a new online community for women that offers entertainment, blogs, advice and advertising. Dove.msn.com’s biggest draw…
Friends and Family Seal the Deal
If you can convince family and friends to recommend a product or service, then you’re a long way down the road to making the sale. But how, just exactly, do…
GHQ: Bright future
Encompassing an array of products including natural and organic foods, fortified foods, and supplements, the health and wellness industry has performed like a child prodigy over the past few years,…
Into the Data Breach One More Time
And yet again, an American retailer and its customers go down the road of data theft. In this case, the retailer is Advance Auto Parts and the most recent hack…
Drugstore.com Seeks Contentitive Edge
Drugstore.com is looking to provide consumers with the information they need to make informed decisions about their own healthcare. Last month, Drugstore.com signed a deal with HealthCare.com to give consumers…
Supervalu Launches Private Label Organics/Natural Line
Supervalu has joined Safeway, Kroger, Publix, et al. to become the latest mainline grocer to announce it was coming out with its own line of natural/organic food products under the…
Budweiser Offers Loyalty Credit Card
Anheuser-Busch has partnered with U.S. Bank to offer a Budweiser Rewards Visa Platinum credit card in the U.S. While card members won’t be redeeming six packs, they will be earnings…
Asda Cheers on its Staff (and Their Namesakes)
Anyone reading the small print of Asda’s press ads would apparently see announcements of staff birthdays and special occasions. One store manager pointed out that his fruit and vegetable department…
