Retail Industry Archive

Bruce Rockowitz, the president of Li & Fung, a major supplier to retail chains in the United States including Wal-Mart and Target, said his U.S. customers are planning for their sales to slide 15 percent to 20 percent this year. On the same day Rockowitz was commenting, Wal-Mart told employees it was cutting up to 800 headquarters jobs in merchandising, real estate, marketing and support...

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A calendar shift and potentially better weather should help sales this spring at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware and other retailers who sell tools and gardening supplies. Evan Gold vp of client services at Planalytics, which does weather forecasting for retailers, said the company is looking at the atmospheric trends and calling for a more seasonable March and April, good news for retail...

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Recently, 99 Cents Only Stores has enjoyed some real success but don’t think that’s just the recession driving bargain hunters its way. The retailer has made changes over the past few years that positioned it to succeed in the soft economy. For one thing, it significantly expanded its food presentation, with perishables being prominent and fortunate, says Joan Storms, who covers the...

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Better health care plans, more environmentally friendly stores and other social initiatives have made Wal-Mart more popular – or less odious — to some critics but now the recession is making the retailer more attractive to what had been a new class of antagonists. Community activists have often opposed Wal-Mart openings, portraying employment at Wal-Mart as akin to indentured servitude....

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Bill Ackman may wait a long time for his investment in Target to pay off because the retailer, innovative and dynamic though it has been, isn’t positioned for strong performance in a recession. Ackman tried to cajole Target into selling off credit card operations and real estate to boost an investment fund he developed with the retailer in mind. That didn’t work and now he’s apologizing...

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Tesco’s strategy of focusing on the value element at its Fresh & Easy stores may be paying off as it’s reporting that fruit and vegetable sales have increased more than 11 percent since it introduced 98-cent produce packs in January. As reported here previously, the produce packs are six-item mixed and changing fruit and vegetable selections packaged together at the 98-cent price....

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Wal-Mart has been rolling out a new store logo meant, the company said, to reflect its commitment to customers as well as the social sensibilities it has adopted. Of course, it’s not a bad time for Wal-Mart to introduce its customers to the broader agenda it has embraced. The economy is pressing more consumers to shop at its stores, and, if it gives them a reason to visit beyond price, the...

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Pier 1 is approaching landlords of 125 of its stores and asking to renegotiate lease obligations, a request that certainly will be backed by at least the implied threat of bankruptcy. Pier 1’s real estate play was supported by other cost cutting measures including work force reductions and the shuttering of a distribution center, and it raised the company’s share price by about six percent....

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Wal-Mart should be congratulated and not just on posting good numbers in January but also on eliminating its monthly comparable store sales estimate. Monthly estimates in retail provide superficial figures that are as likely to misinform as to inform. For one thing, retailers can easily manipulate them. By engaging in a deep discount in a given month, a retailer can boost its comparable store...

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Target is touting fashion for summer with the release of its Look Book, a style guide that is all new in a ‘40s kind of way and a fresh attempt to change its apparel fortunes. The look is definitely retro. Although a couple of different eras are visited, with 60’s-look boys surfer swim trunks, for instance, the women’s element definitely harkens to the classic American styles of the 1940s...

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