RECENT discussions
Discussions
Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
R&FF Retailer: ‘The Oogidie-Boogidie People’
Why don’t more of you guys integrate your organic and natural foods into your mainstream shelf sets? Warren Thayer just doesn’t see why this is still even debated. Is it…
Only Eight Negotiating Days Left Till March 5th
Today is February 26 and in eight days (March 5), the current labor contract between 59,000 grocery store employees represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union and…
The Challenge: Fill Up Tanks and Carts
Fuel prices on the national level are 50 percent higher than five years ago. It has been suggested in some quarters that consumers have become acclimated to the high prices…
Has Starbucks Lost Its Soul?
Howard Schultz is concerned that Starbucks has lost its soul and is asking everyone who works for the company to remember those attributes and practices that made the company great…
Supply Chain Digest: Inventory Management – Are we Making Inventory Progress?
People often ask Dan Gilmore about inventory levels, and he doesn’t often have good numbers off the top of his head. So he and Supply Chain Digest decided to…
Selection Doesn’t Fit with Consumer Wants
It’s not a new complaint. Female consumers have been saying for quite some time that the clothes found on store racks seem to be made for someone other than them…
In-Store Clinics AOK with Medical Journal
The New England Journal of Medicine has concluded that in-store medical clinics have so far been shown to protect the health of patients even while they may pose some competition…
Less Complaining and More Spending from Consumers
Pretty much everyone has some retailing customer service horror story to tell but, on balance, the situation may not be all that bad at the moment. The University of Michigan’s…
Is Roundy’s for Sale?
Is Roundy’s Supermarkets exploring the ever-popular strategic alternatives for its business, just a week after the chain announced it was getting ready to make its mark in the Chicagoland market?…
Next Stop, a Department Store
We never would have believed it. Three girls, ages 13 and 14, looking for dresses to wear to a friend’s party asked the tagalong adult to drive them to the…
Whole Foods to Sow its Wild Oats
Whole Foods and Wild Oats are competitors no longer. Yesterday, the two companies announced a $65 million deal for Whole Foods to acquire Wild Oats. The deal put to rest…
A Sense of Security
The Providence Journal reports that TJX, Ross-Simons, CVS and now Stop & Shop have discovered security breaches that have put customers of those retail businesses at significant financial risk. …
PL Buyer Cover Story: Charging Forward
Thanks to the acquisition of Albertsons last year, Supervalu is the No. 3 grocery retailer in the United States, behind only Wal-Mart Stores and Kroger. Among the pillars driving its…
Bird Flu Poses Little Risk, Packs Big Scare
There are a relatively few incidents of bird flu spreading to human beings across the globe but that is not keeping the food industry from preparing for the worst. If…
Managing is Hard Work
A new book, It’s Okay to be the Boss, by Bruce Tulgan, says managers are under so much pressure and so busy, they don’t bother to manage. Employees trust “the…
BrainTrust Query: Why are retailers in the dark ages when it comes to email?
Imagine the scenario: Into my inbox pops a beautiful email. It has a gorgeous, appetizing shot of lemon caper salmon. The salmon – the wild organic kind – is fresh…
E-commerce for Beginners
By now, you’ve probably heard radio commercials announcing that there is big money to be made in online ventures requiring no investment on your part. Well, much in those commercials…
What is the OTC World Coming To?
In the U.K., Viagra will now be available OTC but only after a lengthy interview between customer and pharmacist. More and more retailers are offering medical advice and treatment, leaving…
Home Meal Replacement Death Ruled a Suicide
The rationale behind the whole ‘home meal replacement’ strategy of the 1990’s was that various foodservice operations were taking sales away from supermarkets as people were increasingly buying and consuming…
EDLP or Promotion: What is the correct strategy?
Much of the industry trend towards adoption of EDLP has developed in response to Wal-Mart’s success with the strategy. Many others, however, have not done as well in efforts to…
Does RFID Have Issues?
From some viewpoints, it’s been pretty much all good on the radio frequency identification (RFID) front as retailers such as Metro and Wal-Mart have reported impressive results from the use…
