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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Consumers Getting Crankier
Attention retailers and other businesses selling to consumers: Your customers are not happy. The latest results from the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index show a continuing decline in…
Americans Give Lip Service to Eating Better
What Americans say about how they would like to eat and what actually passes their lips on its way to their stomachs are two entirely different things, especially when eating…
Be Careful What You Google For
Google and the other search engines get fees from advertisers for featuring their sites on result screens and by placing ads on sites that seem relevant to their products. But…
Marquette Suffers a Loyalty Turnover
The loyalty of alumni enjoyed by a university is the envy of anyone who operates a loyalty program. Marquette University in Milwaukee recently shook the foundation of that loyalty and…
Seniors Getting Younger All The Time
The nation is getting older but the definition of senior citizen keeps getting younger. Although many Americans are now choosing to work past the “retirement age” of 65, consumers can…
Spartan Shareholder Wants to Sell
Spartan Stores brought Craig Sturken in to run the grocery wholesaler/retailer in 2003 to get its struggling business turned around. By most accounts, Mr. Sturken and his team at Spartan…
Publix Goes Au Naturale
Publix Supermarkets announced it plans to open two new natural food stores under the company’s GreenWise banner in 2006. The prevailing view is Publix is making this move to counter…
Is New Food Pyramid in Jeopardy?
According to a survey conducted by the California Olive Industry, the average consumer not working in the food industry is aware of the USDA’s new food pyramid, but knows little…
Field’s Shoppers, Sales People Want to Kick the Computer
Reports in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune say Field’s has encountered problems in its furniture department where computer errors has led angry shoppers to cancel undelivered orders. Are the…
Chinese Chicken Strips – Roasting in Retail Ethnography
From The Wall Street Journal: “On a recent evening stroll, James Rice, a vice president at Tyson Foods and the head of its China operations, wandered into a narrow alley,…
Consumers Pay More for Clear Consciences and New Duds
According to Sweatshop Watch, a sweatshop “is a workplace that violates the law and where workers are subject to: Extreme exploitation, poor working conditions, arbitrary discipline, or fear and intimidation…
Price Versus the iPod
Yahoo is launching a new online music service. The Internet giant is banking that a low $6.99 monthly subscription fee ($4.99 with a yearly contract) and a million song library…
Latin American Presidents Pitch CAFTA
Presidents from the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua are in the nation’s capital today at the request of the Bush administration to help persuade lawmakers…
A&P Calls Retreat an Advance
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. has just come off what chairman and chief executive Christian Haub calls its “best quarterly performance in almost three years.” So, what better…
Saks Fires Executives Over Improper Collections
The issue of “markdown money” has been getting increased attention in retailing circles and the business press lately as vendors and regulators begin to more openly question the practice. An…
White Stupidity on Display in Tennessee
The La Lupita Mexican store in the central Tennessee town of Marysville may have had the initials “WP”, standing for white power, scrawled in graffiti on it this weekend in…
Dazzling Them with Demos
Warehouse clubs such as Costco do it. Niche grocers such as Trader Joe’s do, too. Upscale merchants such as Marshall Field’s definitely do it, and not just with perfume. What…
Pepsi Competes Against Itself
It’s a common practice for retailers and restaurants serving immigrant populations or consumers who just want to eat “authentic” foods to import the versions of popular international brands manufactured in…
Daily Dose of Loyalty
Wyeth Consumer Healthcare’s Centrum multi-vitamin brand has launched Centrum “Pledge for Life.” The program gets customers to enroll and pledge to take a Centrum a day. Why are manufacturers doing…
Free Comic Books – One Day Only
Call them comic books or graphic novels. Whichever name you prefer, you and consumers across the country can pick one up for free tomorrow in stores participating in the fourth…
GHQ Cover Story 05/05: Lund Stands Tall
Grocery Headquarters magazine has named Lund Food Holdings, operator of Lunds and Byerly’s, as its retailer of the year. Russell T. “Tres” Lund III, doesn’t think there’s any secret to…
