Retail Industry Archive

What are the nation’s most environmentally friendly retailers? Sustainability advocacy group Greenopia aims to let you know with its recently released list of greenest (and not so green) retailers. Here are a few highlights: IKEA won in the department-store category, Whole Foods headed up grocers and Patagonia won in apparel. Read Greenopia’s full list here. The Santa Monica,...

More...

Twitter is helping drive changes in the product mix at Fresh & Easy, and it may actually influence more of what the Tesco division does in the future. Spokesman Brendan Wonnacott said changes the company has recently made, including the introduction of a family meal line, were reactions to consumer input, which increasingly comes through the online social network. He noted: We’ve gotten a...

More...

The recession has become something of a golden age of consumer research, which continues to reveal that consumers spending, when closely examined, defies generalization. This week, the Conference Board, in the aftermath of a stock market rally and vaguely positive data on the housing market, reported that consumer confidence was up in April. While that boosted the stock market, a closer look...

More...

Kmart has introduced its Look Book for footwear, a buckles and bows filled style guide to a product segment that is becoming more important in the retailer’s apparel and accessories business. Until recently, Kmart’s footwear departments were operated by Footstar’s Meldisco division under a contract that expired at the end of last year. Now, Kmart is operating footwear in accordance with a...

More...

Executives at many major retail chains across the country made it clear for months that they intend to ask their landlords for rent concessions as a way to deal with weak sales during the recession. Williams-Sonoma is doing it. Charming Shoppes is asking for help. Quiznos is even in the fray. Looking at the recent financial results of a few large retail REITs out there, it seems as though these...

More...

Consumer intentions to cut spending in the recession are at least growing less severe, the Trend Tracker Study conducted by the Gordman Group consultancy indicated, but any benefits from that development will continue to boost retailers most closely identified with low prices, and particularly Wal-Mart. In the study, 80 percent of respondents said the economy has influenced where they shop,...

More...

Sales growth for organic products has withered in the recession, which has made life increasingly difficult for retailers who focus on premium priced natural foods, Whole Foods Market conspicuous among them. In April, 2008, organic product sales increased by about 20 percent after a year of bouncing in the low 20 to low 30 percent range, according to a Nielsen Co. study. But then the growth...

More...

Blockbuster hasn’t had it easy lately with financial maladies such as maturing loans compounding the problems caused by acute competition in it major business, movie rentals, but the retailer may pull through yet as it has adopted one of the simpler of survival strategies: If you can’t beat ‘em join em’. A shift in Blockbusters fortunes may be hidden within another recently announced...

More...

Not long ago, this blog detailed how William Ackman, who heads investment firm Pershing Square, had assembled a kind of dream team of potential directors for Target in the sense that their experience was perfectly suited to execute his plans to excise the retailer’s credit card business, convert a lot of its property into a real estate investment trust and energize the expansion of its food...

More...

Beauty might seem to fall among those discretionary purchases that would be out during a recession, but that’s not necessarily the case, as consumers continue to focus spending on what is important to them, cutting back on some purchases to continue making others. Research firm Mintel has identified specific factors it says will drive the beauty business. Some revolve around the addition of...

More...