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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Wal-Mart Doing Remix on Logistics
A program going by the name “Remix” is focused on putting an end to empty shelves of fast moving grocery products in Wal-Mart. The company has embarked on this program…
Target Books Loyalty
Target recently launched a reading club supported by a Web site. The club is intended to get American families hooked on reading. Parents and children who register online will receive…
Gap.com Going Offline Sparks Consumer Interest
Taking its Old Navy (www.oldnavy.com), Gap (www.gap.com), and Banana Republic (www.bananarepublic.com) online stores offline for several days to complete repairs and upgrades to the sites may have been one of…
Talent Wars to Heat Up
Gloria Johnson Goins, vice president of diversity and inclusiveness for The Home Depot, says one of the biggest challenges businesses will face in the very near future is finding people…
Boomers Calling Shots and Setting Trends
Many of the trends that have developed in recent years and have been credited to the influence of Generations X and Y would never have happened without the consent of…
From Sweden with Love and Style
The same thing happens every time H&M opens a store in the states. Long lines of people queue up waiting for the doors to open and the shopping and saving…
New CEO on the Way, Nash Finch Execs Guaranteed Pay
As David Livingston of DJL Research points out: “It’s pretty standard for a new CEO to clean house.” That would seem to explain why Nash Finch’s compensation committee signed deals…
What’s In-Store for Brands? Retailer Marketing
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal front page trumpeted the shift from out of store advertising to in-store marketing as the way to reach consumers suffering from message overload as they make…
Stop & Shop Takes New Approach to GM/HBC
Stop & Shop hasn’t made any major adjustments to how it merchandises its general merchandise (GM) and health and beauty care (HBC) department in nearly a quarter of a century,…
GHQ Cover Story 09/05 – Space Quest
Location is still the name of the game in retail. As anyone in the business can tell you, finding the right location to build a store can be as critical…
Macy’s In and Field’s Out in Federated Announcement
Federated Department Stores has a plan and it is heavy on the Macy’s and Bloomingdales and totally Marshall Field’s free. Yesterday, the department store operator announced that it would change…
Online Grocery 2005
Safeway’s decision to roll out its online shopping and home delivery service in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. region is the latest indication that such services are alive and well…
Subtle Differences Important to African-American Women
WSL Strategic Research’s September 2005 PULSE Report says despite the numerous similarities shared by different ethnic groups in terms of where they shop and what they buy, there are also…
Who Gets the Credit This Christmas?
Thirty-five million Americans make the minimum payment on their credit card debt each month. Certainly, Christmas is the key time for increasing that debt. In January 2003, the Office of…
Retailers Fear ‘W’ Coming to Town
Its name starts with ‘W’ and competitors know that when it comes to town, everything changes. Bright expansive stores and a reputation that precedes it means that whenever the chain…
Playing Guess the Buyer – The Albertsons Edition
For those keeping score, Tesco, Carrefour, Delhaize, Wal-Mart and CVS are among the large international and domestic retail chains that have reportedly expressed some interest in acquiring all or part…
HP Practices Tough Loyalty
Last week, Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd warned HP will cut partners it deems not sufficiently loyal to the vendor. “For the people who want to play with us, we are…
Coutu Says Eckerd Will Take a Lot of Work
When Jean Coutu Group took over Brooks drugstores, it took five years to get the newly acquired stores up to spec. It will “only” take three years for the chain…
Consumer Behavior Changing
Some got the wake up call before Hurricane Katrina. Now everyone’s gotten it. Consumers are changing their shopping behaviors and just how they are going about their business is important…
Another Study Finds Methylmercury in Popular Fish
A new study by the environmental groups Oceana and the Mercury Policy Project confirms earlier research that swordfish and tuna steaks sold in U.S. grocery stores have varying, sometimes dangerous,…
Safeway Looks to Mother Nature to Power Gas Stations and Stores
Safeway announced it will buy electricity generated by wind power to provide for the energy needs of its 270 gas stations around the country. The company is purchasing 78 million…
