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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Shareholders Want Say in Deciding Pay to Go Away
Objections to the size of severance packages awarded to former senior executives at Coca-Cola has prompted company shareholders, led by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund, to introduce a…
Sam’s Club Offers Discount Health Services
Members of 552 Sam’s Clubs nationwide now will have access to discounts of up to 50 percent on a variety of medical and dental services through UnitedHealth Group’s HealthAllies program…
NRF: Minimum Wage Will Increase Welfare Rolls
The U.S. Senate voted down an amendment introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D – Mass) that would have increased the national minimum wage by $2.10 over 26 months. The National…
Dominick’s a Good Deal if Roundy’s Can Get It
At $325 million, Dominick’s Finer Foods would be a bargain if Roundy’s can get Safeway to part with it. An unidentified source close to Roundy’s said, “Yes, we would be…
Attention Sears’ Shoppers: This is Only a Test
A piece on the Chicago Daily Herald’s Web site says it’s still too early to tell if Sears 97 store test of stores targeted to local ethnic populations is working…
NASCAR Starts Loyalty Program
On Feb. 10, NASCAR launched the Official NASCAR Members Club in Daytona, Fl. The objective of the program is for NASCAR to reward members and, in the process, learn more…
Bill Seeks To Bring Slots Out Into the Open
A bill introduced in the California state legislature would impose fines on retailers that do not let vendors know up front what they will be required to pay in slotting…
Kmart Wants Cheap Chic Niche
According to a report by The New York Times, Kmart is hipper than it used to be and plans on becoming even more closely identified with products that are both…
Federated’s Name Game Strategy
One-by-one, the familiar banners that hung over regional department stores, such as Bon Marche, Burdine’s, Lazarus and others, were first hyphenated and then replaced by Macy’s. Should Federated continue to…
Fed Chief Calls for National Sales Tax
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan believes that moving from an income tax to a national consumption or sales tax could spur economic growth. Should the retail industry drop its historical…
NRF Calls For Bankruptcy Reform
The National Retail Federation (NRF) has urged the Senate to approve bankruptcy reform legislation contained in S. 256, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. If approved,…
Okay, Maybe Crime Does Pay Sometimes
By all accounts, Martha Stewart’s conviction on federal securities charges and her subsequent jail term had little to no negative impact on the sale of products bearing her name. Now…
GHQ Cover Story 03/05: Adapting for survival
According to the March 2005 issue of Grocery Headquarters magazine, many well-known names in grocery retailing – Winn-Dixie, A&P, Pathmark, Penn Traffic and others – find themselves confronting this reality…
Brown and Cole Closing Stores
The family-owned Brown and Cole grocery store chain is closing eight of its 31 stores in the Pacific Northwest and the owner says he has no choice as shoppers desert…
Consumers Do Homework Online
It’s not news that consumers often research products and services before going into a store to make a purchase. What may surprise some is the number of people who are…
Are Stereotypes About Minorities and the Internet Still Alive and Well?
A February 24, 2005 article in Ad Age cites recent Forrester Research survey findings that over 80 percent of Fortune 100 companies lack Spanish-language Web sites, and even the other…
More Changes at Circuit City
Things are certainly busy in Richmond, Virginia where the consumer electronics chain, Circuit City, finds itself the target of a takeover bid, searching for a new chief operating officer and…
Religious Beliefs and Professional Ethics
A temporary pharmacist with strong religious convictions found himself in court after refusing in July 2002 to fill a prescription for birth control pills for a University of Wisconsin-Stout student…
SAP Buys Retek
After years of dabbling in retail, SAP finally takes the plunge with an investment of $496M to buy Retek. SAP has made a number of efforts to establish a beachhead…
Consumers Want Government to Limit Rx Prices
A telephone poll of 1,200 adults conducted by the nonprofit health research organization, The Kaiser Family Foundation, found that nearly two out of every three questioned believe the federal government…
Companies Are Not Worthy of Loyalty
According to the 2004 Customer Experience Management Global Survey conducted by Strativity Group, despite companies being more committed to customer strategy than they were three years ago, the company/customer relationship…
