Retail Industry Archive

September 2008

Staples Turns to Barclays To Solve Credit Worries

By Lisa Everitt | Sep 30, 2008

Staples just made a deal with Barclays to assume more than $1 billion in credit agreements the office-supply firm made with a division of Lehman Bros. At Clusterstock, John Carney peers into an SEC filing and says this is good news for both creditor banks and retailers who rely on revolving credit. An important question in the meltdown of so many financial firms has been what will happen to the...

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Retail Roundup: Online Retailers Optimistic, J.C. Penney Sues Dillard's, and More

By Danielle Novy | Sep 30, 2008

Retailers remain optimistic about online commerce during economic crisis — About three-fourths of Internet retailers believe online commerce will survive an economic slump better than offline channels, according to a new study conducted by Forrester Research for Shop.org. The report also revealed retailers are seeing climbing profits in their online sectors, meaning even the...

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Retail Roundup: Postal Service Targets Retailers, Boscov's Looks to Sell

By Danielle Novy | Sep 29, 2008

Postal service’s new site targets retailers – Direct-to-consumer retailers may find the process of shipping products to their customers has been made easier by a revamped U.S. Postal Service Web site. USPS.com features a new business section, complete with web-based tools for checking the accuracy of residential addresses among other services. [Source: Internetretailer]...

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Self-Service as a Real Estate Strategy

By Lisa Everitt | Sep 29, 2008

On real estate blog GlobeSt.com, Noreen Seebacher takes a look at the retail sector’s increasing emphasis on self-service — and what that means for shopping center owners and developers. While expensive to implement, kiosks and self-checkouts cut labor costs, add sales options, and provide faster customer service, vendors and consultants say. A report from IHL Consulting Group...

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Elfers Out at Lord & Taylor

By Lisa Everitt | Sep 26, 2008

Hudson’s Bay Trading Co. has taken control of its new Lord & Taylor division by firing longtime CEO Jane Elfers. Women’s Wear Daily reported Friday that Elfers will be replaced by Brendan Hoffman, president and CEO of Neiman Marcus Direct. Hudson’s Bay CEO Jeffrey Sherman plans to take stronger control of its various divisions and combine back-office functions to cut...

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Retail Roundup: Dillard's in Limbo, Nordstrom Employees Caught Stealing, and More

By Danielle Novy | Sep 26, 2008

Investors push Dillard family to surrender control – Amid recent economic struggles, Dillard’s investors asked the Dillard family to give up control of the suffering company on Sept. 25. Officials from the Barington Capital Group and the Clinton Capital group penned a letter to Dillard’s board asking that a premium be determined to pay the family for Dillard’s Class B shares....

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Can DSD Change the Retail World?

By Lisa Everitt | Sep 26, 2008

Most grocery items are delivered to distribution centers, then travel to individual stores on the chain’s own trucks. But Cherry Coke, hot dog buns, bananas, chocolate milk, and Doritos come to retailers via Direct Store Delivery. You’ve seen it — the Pepsi truck pulls up and the driver rolls the product into the soda aisle and loads it into the display. If your local...

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Retail Roundup: Sears Revamps Site, Blockbuster Finds Flexibility, and More

By Danielle Novy | Sep 25, 2008

Sears revamps Web site with “first-of-its-kind” technology — Sears has partnered with IBM and My Virtual Model to bring the retailer’s entire catalogue into the third dimension, marking the first time a retailer has done so. The technology, slated to go live in October, allows consumers the chance to create virtual replicas of their bodies that can “try on”...

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Opposing Views of Holiday Retail

By Lisa Everitt | Sep 24, 2008

‘Tis the season to read the tea leaves and wonder how fourth quarter will look in a year in which even investment bankers may find themselves shy a few bucks come December. The National Retail Federation takes the view you’d expect: Brace yourself. But an interesting opposing view shows up in Advertising Age’s “CMO Strategy” section: that consumers console...

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Taking a Look at the Wal-Mart Shopper

By Lisa Everitt | Sep 23, 2008

By sitting in on a meeting between Wal-Mart suppliers and the Homescan & Spectra division of AC Nielsen, the Bentonville, Ark. Morning News got a rare look at shopper segmentation data from Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer. Homescan assembled a 50,000-shopper panel — the world’s largest shopper panel, appropriately enough — to model behavior of the Wal-Mart...

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BNET Retail provides daily industry trends and news coverage with insights for managers and executives about the key players in the consumer retail industry. In addition to detailed retail company profiles, we bring you industry analysis on new retailers, products, mergers and acquisitions, consumer spending figures, and a host of other important issues pertinent to the retail sector.