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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Real Money: P&G to Buy Gillette for $57 Billion
Yesterday, the boards of Procter & Gamble and Gillette unanimously agreed to a deal that, if approved by regulators, would result in P&G acquiring Gillette to form the largest consumer…
Excitement To Keep Stores Open
Kathleen Lavey, a columnist with the Lansing State Journal, like many others has found that she shopped online more often last year than in the past. She thinks that is…
Number Two and Liking It
Caribou Coffee vice president of marketing Chris Toal would be the first to tell you his company is no Starbucks. The Seattle-based chain has over 6,000 stores. Caribou has 306…
Blue-Light Still Flickers
Kmart’s blue-light special was the brainchild of a store manager in 1965. Forty years later, the blue-light has become a symbol for many of Kmart’s problems. Plenty of people inside…
Hispanic Event Marketing – Hitting Community Hot Buttons
A recent article on HispanicAd.com presents tips on how to “hit the mark” through Hispanic event marketing. An increasing number of marketers have been jumping on the event bandwagon to…
Laffer: Corporate Social Responsibility Is Voodoo
Arthur Laffer, the so-called father of supply-side economics — or voodoo economics if you happen to be a former President of the United States — says if you’re looking for…
No McJoke: Judges Reopen Obesity Suit
Just when you thought it was safe to assume that the courts had decided how fat a person gets is a matter of genetics and/or personal responsibility, the U.S. Court…
Jack Brown Opens Pandora’s Box
Okay, we’ve got a bone to pick with Jack Brown, the chairman, chief executive and bottle washer at the Stater Bros. grocery store chain. What could he have said or…
The Cell Phone Diet
Atkins Nutritionals was looking for an innovative means to gets its brand’s benefits message out to new consumers while building a stronger connection to those following a low-carb diet regimen…
A Fresh Opportunity for Niche Retailing?
It’s no surprise to anyone in the retailing industry that traditional grocery store market share dropped from 44 percent in 1993 to 35 percent in 2004. What is more surprising…
Auto-Retailing Has Nothing To Do With Cars
Federated Department Stores’ chief Terry Lundgren put three-foot tall robots at the entrance of Macy’s to greet shoppers as they entered the store. Many within the industry did little to…
Lundgren Has Merchandising in His Blood
According to a piece in the Wall Street Journal, Terry Lundgren, Federated Department Stores’ chairman and chief executive officer, would like nothing better than to transform the entire department store…
It’s Not Loyal to Stop Shopping
Reports have tended to emphasize the continual declines in annual trips to supermarkets, but there’s another story here. For the first time, one percent of shoppers, over a period of…
Yes Martha, Kmart Does Have Another Home Products Line
A report in the Detroit News says Kmart is rolling out a new line of home products, such as towels, bed sheets, etc., without the Martha Stewart name attached. Does…
NRF Review: Looking Forward to Next Year
The NRF show was really about the next next big thing in retail technology. Managers are now looking for what the next thing to help them differentiate themselves will be…
If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try and Merge Again
It’s déjà vu all over again. Two years after being unable to complete a deal that would have united the two largest U.S. department store chains under a single corporate…
NRF Study: Supply Chain Efficiency Key Retail Issue for 2005
Retailers will continue to focus on supply chain efficiency this year, while issues like product assortment, technology and store design will receive an increased amount of attention from managers. What…
The Second Term
As George W. Bush places his left hand on a family Bible and his right hand in the air to take the oath of office at his inauguration today, it…
Love Anti-American Style
One outcome of the war in Iraq has been the beating taken by French products and brands sold in the U.S. C’est la Guerre, but perhaps a bit more disconcerting…
Old News is Good News from ARTS at NRF
The Association for Retail Technology Standards, sponsored by NRF, was established to work on platform independent, vendor neutral standards. The objective: lower the cost and increase the speed of retail…
Hi-Tech Marketingspeak: Making Orwell Proud
When’s the last time you read a high-tech brochure that did NOT present a “value proposition” to “streamline processes” and “optimize resources” across your entire “enterprise”? Was the “solution” “robust”…
