Retail Industry Archive

After reporting better-than-expected results for the first quarter, Best Buy’s president and soon-to-be CEO Brian Dunn outlined the electronics retailer’s strategy to capitalize on what it regards as the opportunities in the current market, taking into account a more cautious consumer and the demise of specialist competitors such as Circuit City as well as the expansion of electronics...

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The benefits enhancement program Wal-Mart has developed with Caterpillar Inc. will allow it to expand pharmacy operations and potentially drive more sales to its drug departments, but it is one of many retail initiatives established to capture more health-related sales. Wal-Mart already is purchasing prescription drugs for Caterpillar, a job usually handled by pharmacy benefit management...

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One Nordstrom is not necessarily like another, even if they are operating in close enough proximity that you might think they would be. Yet, even at the upper end of retailing today, where the style of a city and the sensibilities of designers are supposed to set the pace, the customer is the one who determines what’s in and what’s not, in this case, right at store level. Nordstrom is...

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Wal-Mart not long ago began renovating its home furnishings departments, and it is making significant efforts to get consumer to take a hard look at what it can provide. Better Homes and Gardens at Wal-Mart A couple of years ago, Wal-Mart did a deal to bring the Better Home and Gardens brand into the store. Licensed from the magazine publisher, it has become a core brand that provides the...

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The direction Williams-Sonoma is taking is open to interpretation and observers can, and have, differed significantly with one analyst, Joan Storms of Wedbush Morgan, upgrading the company’s shares based on its latest posted results and another Michael Lester of Barclays Capital downgrading it. Williams-Sonoma may deserve the benefit of the doubt. Storms said the main reasons behind her...

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Making adjustments to the economy, A&P is blowing out its private label line up, adding inexpensive own brands that have a little something extra added. A&P has gained attention for adding gourmet food to the line up of the various chains it controls, including the namesake chain and Waldbaum’s, as it upgrades to a format called fresh, one that gives it a different approach to the...

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There isn’t much good news out there for malls in general. Many of them are cutting back their hours and dealing with chains from Gottschalks to Ann Taylor closing stores around the country. But home-furnishings chain Kirkland’s is performing better in its mall-based locations than stores that are stand-alone units or part of a strip center. At locations open at least a year during the...

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Aldi is reconfiguring its private label line up, streamlining the number of the own brands it operates to boost their reputation and the reputation of the store. And it’s doing so just in time to open its 1,000th U.S. Aldi store, which debuted two days ago in West Haven, Conn. The private labels and the store are inseparable because 95% of the products sold there are house brands, and right...

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Costco, Starbucks and Whole Foods may seem unlikely to win the affection of their fellow retailers over their proposal for compromise on the Employee Free Choice Act, or card check bill, but they may just have begun the process of gutting the proposal. Costco, Starbucks and Whole Foods are suggesting compromise in a situation where the two sides in direct opposition have firmly said they...

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Consultants, analysts and pundits have been lining up to talk about how the recession is changing consumer behavior, but it is changing retail behavior as well, and Walgreen is an example of how. Walgreen typifies the retailer that, in the recession, is intensifying how it addresses operations, looking for ways to add services, cut costs and provide consumer discounts all at the same time....

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