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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Women Moving Slowly Up Corporate Ladder
Women may have come a long way but they still have quite a ways to go when it comes to moving up the corporate ladder in Fortune 500 companies. According…
BrainTrust Query: Contextually Relevant Promotions…Do They Produce?
This week, Burger King announced a very creative online promotion with Maxim magazine. Together, they created a microsite featuring video footage of three “hometown hottie” models that guys choose as…
Shoppers Checking Out on Impulse Items
Self-checkout systems have a number of benefits. A new study from IHL Consulting Group, however, suggests there may be at least one drawback to operating self-checkouts. It appears as though…
Safe Often Leads to Sorry on Hiring Front
It’s been said, “It’s better to be safe than sorry.” But for many companies hiring new employees, safe often leads to sorry consequences, say experts. The difference between excellence and…
BrainTrust Query: Has the risk been taken out of corporate buyouts?
Tuesday’s front-page article in The Wall Street Journal described how the new corporate buyouts funded by hedge funds and investment bankers no longer involve much risk for the investor. The…
Attack of the Brawny Burger
Find any synonym for humongous and you’ll know where the fast food industry is going with its burger offerings. According to a podcast report from Advertising Age, the so-called brawny…
The Girls Put Off Shopping for School
Kids, like many other consumers, have gotten it in their minds that it makes sense to make purchases when it fits their schedule and not one determined by retailers. The…
BrainTrust Query: Are Wal-Mart’s new ‘fashion merchants’ the answer to improving the retailer’s apparel business?
“Fashion Emergency At Wal-Mart” is the title of BusinessWeek’s July 31st edition article. It may be hyperbolizing to suggest alarm bells ringing at Wal-Mart headquarters, but it appears that management…
Filene’s Remodels Basement
Filene’s Basement is moving from its heritage of offering steep discounts on designer merchandise. It is, as a Boston Globe report points out, looking to broaden its horizons by offering…
Automated Ordering: What are the possibilities?
Al McClain recently met with SAF – AG of Switzerland, a company that promises that great things are in store for retailers who adopt automated ordering. Not being an IT…
Scott: Rollbacks Trump Gas Hikes
Wal-Mart’s CEO Lee Scott is keenly aware that the price of gas has hit an all-time high. But he’s confident in his company’s ability to continue achieving growth in its…
Edward Lampert: The Straight Shooter
Not many believed Sears Holdings’ Edward Lampert when he said he wanted to return Sears and Kmart to their glory days as retail chains. Most, it’s pretty safe to say,…
Spanish for Retailers Pays Off
Tyrone Wicks, a manager of a RadioShack store, didn’t care much for Spanish the year he took it in high school. Now, he’s finding that understanding the language is both…
Wal-MartSpace.com?
In a strategy to attract 13-18 year old kids and their back-to-school dollars, Wal-Mart has launched a teen networking and content sharing site called “The Hub.” Unlike sites, such as…
The Reality (Show) of Macy’s Business
Macy’s is about to become the first retailer profiled on a reality television program. Let’s hope for Macy’s and its employees that it comes across better than some of the…
The Seasonal Workers Customer Service Mystery
Retailers and restaurants may add staff during summer months by hiring seasonal workers, but according to 75 percent of mystery shoppers who earlier this month attended the Mystery Shopping Providers…
Meal Assembly – A New Marketing Platform for Brands
New types of retail store formats pop up all the time, but of the concepts of the past few years claiming to be truly unique, meal assembly centers may actually…
Home Depot Gets Into Ad Sales
Call it an opportunity to educate consumers or a means to improve relations with an important retail customer. Whatever you call it, there is little doubt that Home Depot’s decision…
Gadgets and Clothes Top Back-to-School Shopping Lists
Mom and Dad are going to be plunking down more dollars this year as they send their kids off to the school. That’s the findings of the National Retail Federation’s…
Blogs: Retailing Angel or Demon?
What’s the deal with blogs? Blogs may be a great opportunity for retailers and marketers and/or a big pain in the neck. To Al McClain, blogs feel like chaos…
Study: Connection Between Good Health and Chicago Supermarkets
A new study, Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago, finds a direct correlation between access to grocery stores in local neighborhoods and the health of…
