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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Federated/May Agree to Deal
Federated Department Stores announced this morning that it has agreed to acquire rival May Department Stores in a deal valued at approximately $11 billion. The deal will make the combined…
Is Roundy’s Getting Out of Wholesale Biz
With the sale of two distribution centers in Lima, Ohio, and Westville, Ind. to Nash Finch, Roundy’s has come closer to putting itself out of the wholesale grocery business. Is…
J.C. Penney to Go Shopping For Real Estate
With $2.5 billion to play around with after it pays down $500 million in debt, J.C. Penney has plans to go shopping for real estate, reports MarketWatch.com. Penney’s chief financial…
Shoppers Dropping Into Their Chairs
The rallying cry for uber-shoppers used to be ‘shop till you drop’ but, with the growing number of people sitting down in front of their computer to go shopping, a…
Developer Drops Wal-Mart, Not Worth the Trouble
Vornado Realty Trust, which is developing a site in the Rego Park section of Queens, said it had decided to find other tenants for the site after protesters from various…
Is it Time for Scan Based Trading?
Under SBT, brick and mortar retailers are relieved of the investment in presentation stock they must make in order to merchandise vendors’ products. Vendors are paid based on scanning data…
Dealing in Diversity
In an article on Monday, USA Today poses some dos and don’ts of attracting ethnic buyers to automobile dealerships. Do stock waiting rooms with magazines and newspapers in different languages…
Younger Men Suit Up
While many older men equate the term suit and tie with stiffness, their younger counterparts are buying more formal apparel in increasing numbers, reports The Los Angeles Times. Does the…
Asian Markets Not Just For Asians
Go to Assi Plaza, a 54,000-square-foot Asian market in a suburb outside of Philadelphia, and you will find many shoppers of Asian heritage. Depending on the day, you are likely…
Lands’ End in Reorganization
Speculation that Lands’ End doesn’t fit with Sears and could be subject to a sale or spin off once the merger with Kmart is complete is likely to increase after…
Sideways Means Upward Sales for Pinot Noir
Sideways, the Academy Award nominated film about a couple of guys consuming mass quantities of wine while on a road trip along California’s central coast, is being credited with substantially…
Wal-Mart Cuts Out the Middleman Again
Nobody cuts out costs — or the middleman — like Wal-Mart. In a move reminiscent of what it has done in so many areas before, the world’s largest retailer has…
Winn-Dixie Does the Expected, Files for Chapter 11
It was really never a question of if but when Winn-Dixie would seek to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Now that the question has been answered — Winn-Dixie Stores…
Shopper Wants Fewer Choices
Georgi Davis wonders just how many varieties of lettuce are absolutely essential to have in the produce department. Like others, she sometimes feels overwhelmed by the sheer number of product…
Can’t Help But See TV
If NBC is “Must See TV,” then Wal-Mart’s has the “Can’t Help But See TV” network in its stores, especially since it began replacing the small sets it used to…
Loyalty: There’s the Yub
Internet retailer Buy.com recently, and quietly, launched a companion social networking site call YUB.com. Short for Young Urban Buyers (and conveniently “buy” spelled backward), Yub rewards members for making product…
New Publix Format to Focus on Latinos
With its home base in Florida, Publix knows something about what Latino shoppers want. The supermarket chain intends to put that knowledge to work in a new as yet unnamed…
Shoppers Going Back to the Mall
New numbers from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and anecdotal information from mall operators and retailers suggest that Americans are going back to the mall to shop. Shopping…
Jetsons Have Nothing On This Supercenter
A piece in the Arizona Daily Star says AutoCart, a planned 130,000 square-foot drive-through supercenter to be built in Tucson, Ariz. or Albuquerque, N.M., sounds as if it were straight…
Marketechnics Report: What Do You Mean I Have Dirty Data?
One of the big themes at Marketechnics this year was how to clean up your data. But it may be that companies do not have dirty data, but rather misunderstood…
Marketechnics Report: Not Much New Going On
At the Marketechnics Conference in Washington this week, attendees heard from several innovative retailers in the workshops, and there were some advances on the exhibit floor. But, there wasn’t a…
