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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
SC Cases Raise Questions About Employee Screening
Two separate cases in South Carolina alleging convicted sexual offenders working at Wal-Mart had assaulted children in the store has individuals and child welfare groups calling on the company to…
Call Center Takes Drive-Through Orders
A McDonald’s franchisee in Colorado, said, “I don’t know about tech. I know about people who like to eat hamburgers.” He may not consider himself expert but he hit upon…
SoCal Consumers Prefer Not To Do It Themselves
According to a L.A. Daily News report, consumers in Southern California are not sold on the need for or benefits of self-checkouts and many prefer to wait on lines with…
Using Customer Feedback to Boost Sales
Since adding a section on its Web site called “CustomInk Uncensored” that gives the public access to its customer satisfaction database, personalized T-shirt retailer CustomInk.com counts sales improvement among the…
Pet’s Parents Take Special Care of Kids
It’s not unusual for the owners of a dog or cat in the U.S. to refer to themselves as the pet’s Mom or Dad. Pets-as-family is a common sentiment in…
CRM’s Not For Every Company
Keeping customers loyal is not the goal of customer relationship management (CRM) programs, writes Marco De Veglia of The CRM Group on the Web site, CRMguru.com. Keeping them loyal and…
Martha Stewart Sentenced
Martha Stewart has been hit with a sentence of five months in prison, two years of supervised release and a fine of $30,000 for her ImClone conspiracy conviction. How…
Dollar Stores Resistant To Economic Good Times
Conventional wisdom once held that dollar stores grew quickly because a weak economy and consumer concerns about making ends meet made the format more attractive to shoppers. Adam Bergman, a…
Target Tells Employees To Dress For Success
Target prefers employees at its headquarters in Minneapolis wear suits, ties and generally more formal business attire. That’s why the company is doing away with its full-time business casual dress…
Recalls To Cost More At Albertsons
Albertsons says the cost of taking product off store shelves whenever there is a product recall has become too high and from now on manufacturers are going to have to…
The Storm Over Nielsen’s People Meters
This week, Senate Commerce committee hearings are slated to investigate Nielsen Media Research’s controversial new ratings measurement system known as Local People Meters (LPM). This set-top, black box technology, designed…
New Product Pipeline News
New products are the lifeblood of consumer packaged goods manufacturers and the retailers that resell their products. Making the most of new product introductions is tantamount to achieving success in…
Macy’s Looks To Differentiate With Eateries
The chief of Federated Department stores, Terry Lundgren, which operates Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, thinks the chain has found one way of setting his businesses apart — a wide selection of…
BK Has Another New Turnaround Expert
Burger King has a new turnaround expert to lead the hamburger chain as its chief executive. The number two fast-food chain in the U.S. has hired Mr. Brenneman, a former…
Indulgence USA
Forget about “champagne wishes and caviar dreams.” You no longer have to be among the rich and famous to enjoy luxury items. What factors do you believe are chiefly responsible…
Sears: Help Wanted
Sears has a job opening. The company is looking for a president to turn its struggling retail business around. The new hire will be responsible for running all of Sears’…
Refined, Fortified and Out-Of-Favor
“The Department of Agriculture (USDA),” according to a Knight-Ridder report, “is considering a recommendation that consumers should drastically cut their consumption of fortified grains, which are used to enrich a…
Wal-Mart’s Half-Size Big Box
The lack of suitable acreage and local ordinances banning construction of so-called big boxes has forced Wal-Mart to rethink and reconfigure its Supercenter format. The chain is currently testing its…
Where We Shop, What It Means
Stores magazine’s top 10 retailers list left Margaret Webb Pressler wondering what the list says about Americans as shoppers and the state of retailing in the country. “What’s clear is…
Understanding Your Customers Improves Your Business
An article by John Goff in the July 1 CFO Magazine, gives several examples of how companies, including Harrah’s, Volvo Cars of North America, and Brother International, are using customer…
Kmart Accused of Age Discrimination
A lawyer, Hilary K. Johnson, representing a Kmart worker who is suing her employer for age discrimination bluntly says the retailer wants “to get rid of older people.” With an…
