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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Couche-Tard Looks for More Acquisitions
The Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard is looking to continue to grow in 2007 and the company’s CEO says it expects much of that growth to come from acquisitions…
BrainTrust Query: How can suppliers choose “Big Winner” retail partners?
Many consumer packaged goods manufacturers use jargon such as “Winning with Winning Customers” to describe how they decide which key accounts deserve the greatest alignment of resources in “win-win” collaborations…
The Target of Cool
You won’t find any of these Target branded clothes at the discount retailer’s stores, but the chain is hoping that the buzz around the newly introduced high-end Target Couture clothing…
Macy’s Looks to Reward Loyal Customers
When Federated Department Stores makes the final switch from the Marshall Field’s banner to Macy’s, it is safe to say many of Field’s most loyal customers will not be automatically…
BrainTrust Query: How do we break the retailer/manufacturer impasse on effective In-Store Marketing?
With consumers able to buy bread in Walgreen’s just as readily as in Wegmans, grabbing the consumer’s attention whenever and wherever they shop is critical. The industry is addressing this…
Publix Opens Laboratory
There’s nothing in the new Publix flagship store in Mandarin, Florida that is so different than other stores operated by the chain. What’s different about it is that the new…
Over-Promising and Under-Delivering
Remember the standard advice “under-promise and over-deliver”? It’s always sounded good to me. But, many marketing campaigns and slogans these days have little to do with the actual experience of…
Wal-Mart Focuses on Big Shoplifting Fish
As the largest retailer in the world, Wal-Mart is one very big target for the professional criminal class and, as such, the chain has developed sophisticated methods of dealing with…
CVS Gets Into Quick Clinic Biz
A report by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis/St. Paul says CVS will purchase MinuteClinic, the largest chain of in-store medical clinics in the U.S. The purchase, reportedly for $170…
Another Online Grocery Service Bites the Dust
The consortium led by the Cerberus Group that took part of the Albertsons chain private is closing down the company’s online grocery and home delivery service. Speculation is the supermarket…
Frequenting Target: Is More Too Much?
Retail Forward released some key highlights yesterday from its ShopperScape-based report, Bull’s-eye on the Target Shopper, and headlined the finding that the cheap chic leader is “the most-shopped retailer in…
Labels Don’t Deter Poor Food Choices
New research reveals most American consumers read food labels for nutritional information. Many, however, do not let that get in the way of what they’re going to buy. According to…
Ordinance Called Big Box Mistake
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association says Chicago would be making a big mistake if it mandates that big box retailers such as Wal-Mart meet wage and benefit requirements to operate…
BrainTrust Query: Do you believe in company Karma?
Last week, Alloy Media + Marketing released results of their fifth annual College Explorer Study, conducted by Harris Interactive, which unveils that environmental and social responsibility influences college market spending…
Big Boxes Hope to Clean Up in Carwash Biz
Wal-Mart, Costco and Home Depot are among the retail powerhouses looking at the potential of automated carwashes to bring in consumers and grow their already impressive top and bottom line…
Unions Looking to Make Retailers Pay
Years of futility trying to organize non-union retailers along with wage and benefit concessions made to companies with unions helped bring about the recently formed alliance of labor organizations known…
BrainTrust Query: How can we improve the dreaded checkout experience?
Grocers and other retailers are dedicating tremendous resources and brainpower to enhancing the overall shopping experience, but what happens at the checkout and beyond seems to be taken for granted…
Abraham Lincoln’s Leadership Genius
Abraham Lincoln is considered by many to be the greatest president in the history of the United States. In the recently published, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham…
Grocers Look to Takeout the Competition
Harry Balzer of NPD Group knows what he’s talking about. When asked by the Orlando Sentinel if Americans (most of them anyway) want to prepare meals at home anymore, he…
CSD Cover Story: Keeping Retail Employees Safe
In the gas/c-store channel, Western U.S.-based Tesoro Corp. has undergone a transformation through the years from a small local refiner to a multi-state marketer that’s willing to take risks to…
Is High Fructose Corn Syrup Really That Bad?
Among the major culprits blamed for the alarming rise of obesity in the United States is the addition of high fructose corn syrup in a wide variety of foods and…
