Surviving retailers to see $19.2 billion boost – Retailers that can keep their heads above water long enough to survive the recession are set to gain market share as their competitors fall, creating $20 billion in sales opportunities for businesses left standing. “The retail shake-out will provide big opportunities for survivors,” said Bill Dreher, senior retail analyst at...
Retail Industry Archive
January 2009
Kmart has tried ethnic initiatives before but what is interesting about a new campaign for Black History Month is that the Sears Holding division is making online a major part of the effort. Kmart has been exploring how to promote itself using digital media as it struggles to reconnect with consumers after its bankruptcy, store closings and acquisition by Sears Holding. To this day, consumers...
The executive suite at TJX has always been a tough room to play, but despite many senior management machinations, the company continues a remarkable record of success that shouldn’t be dampened by the recession. In some ways, the recession is good for TJX. Its stores sell goods intended for sale at other retailers when they aren’t accepted or when those stores can’t sell them. It then...
Best Buy to lay off more workers — Best Buy announced Tuesday that it must resort to layoffs at corporate headquarters in spite of the 500 employees who agreed to leave voluntarily earlier this month. An unknown number of workers will be laid off Feb. 19 as the electronics retailer continues to cut cots amid a slump in sales. The average employee who is forced out will receive six...
Target is learning to live with the recession, as cheap take precedence over chic in its business equation. Yesterday, Target announced it would lay off about nine percent of its headquarters workforce, but it certainly wasn’t cheap in the severance packages it offered. Still, 1,000 jobs are gone at the Minneapolis home base including 600 slashed and 400 left unfilled. Additionally, the...
Home Depot’s decision to shutter its 34 Expo Design Centers is being lumped in with other signals of larger economic distress, but it’s something that was probably inevitable anyway. Launched in the early 1990s, Expo was to provide consumers with a place they could go as an alternative to the showrooms they might shop with an interior designer. The idea was to help affluent but not...
Wasson named Walgreens CEO – Walgreen Co. today named Gregory D. Wasson as the drugstore chain’s new CEO, a power shift that places Wasson, current president and COO, at the helm of the company he has served for nearly 30 years. Wasson replaces acting CEO Alan G. McNally, who has held the position since former top-exec Jeffrey Rein retired in October. “During the past...
Beware of New York Times assessments of Wal-Mart. In an article the Times published Saturday detailing Wal-Mart’s social efforts, the newspaper credits Wal-Mart’s recent return to favor among retail observers to sustainability, health care and public relations initiatives, while simultaneously describing them as inadequate. Does that sound strange? It isn’t if you’ve followed Times...
Just how consumers will respond to the economic downturn is a question retailers and their suppliers are beginning to understand, and evidence continues to accumulate that shoppers will spend money on the purchases that provide comfort and some amusement, particularly at home. Consumers may be trading down, generally, and experimenting with bargain products and brands, but they haven’t...
Boscov’s bailout falters after Penn. counties reject loan — Pennsylvania officials are struggling to scrape together a plan to keep Boscov’s department-store chain afloat after two of the seven counties with Boscov’s stores within their borders declined to partake in a $35 million scheme to bailout the suffering retailer. After being rejected by Pennsylvania’s...
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- Dollar Stores Holding New Shoppers Even as Recovery Buoys Rivals
- Faced with Walmart and History, Retailers Can't Avoid Deep Holiday Discounts
- Big 5 Sporting Goods Outperforms Peers With Big Discounts
- Kohl's Greens Up Its Image, and the Timing Couldn't Be Better
- Family Dollar Trying to Capture Higher-Income Customer
- Walmart Explores Routes to Conquering Amazon
- Kmart Rejuvenates Jaclyn Smith So Shoppers Forget Martha Stewart
- Sears Launches Its Own Black Friday, Targeting Apparel for Deep Discounts
- Consumers Plan More Online Spending But Wait While Watching Deals
- Walmart Prepares Facebook Push in Drive for Marketing Efficiency
- Vitamin Shoppe's IPO Highlights a Retail Sector With Spunk
- Macy's Believes It Can Boost Holidays with Santa and Queen Latifah
- Z Gallerie's Second Chance a Good Sign for Furniture Chains?
- Walmart Price Separation Leaving Retailers Behind, including Kroger
- TheFind.com Give Bargain Hunters More Options Online
- Target Challenged on Consumer Perception
- Booksellers Take On Walmart, Target, Amazon Over Discounts -- But It's Just Business as Usual
- Kohl's Staying Afloat on Consumers Trading Down
- Gap Stands Behind Flailing Banana Republic
- Wegmans Takes a Bite Out of Back to School
- Target Talks Cheap but Can't Resist Chic
- Wal-Mart, Target and Costco Shine as Private Labels Challenge National Brands
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- Whole Foods Twitters on the Cheap
- P&G Retail Push Makes Sense, Risks Aside
- Walmart Readies Smaller Stores for Smarter Growth
- Tiffany, Williams-Sonoma Rewarded for Poor Sales
- Conserving Cash is Blockbuster's "Winning" Initiative
- Target Talks Cheap but Can't Resist Chic
- Target Challenged on Consumer Perception
- Hhgregg's Uncommon Expansion Not Without Risks
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