Retail Industry Archive

It seems like everyone in today’s tough competitive landscape, from Sam’s Club to Dollar Tree, is gunning for the small businesses that constitute a critical customer base for office supply chains, yet, in the recession, those retailers are making a special effort to aid consumers who are out of work. Staples has launched a program called Career Stimulus to give a leg up to folks who...

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Macy’s earnings came in better than its own guidance and the company suggested in a conference call that it is poised to improve its operational performance with the full roll out of its My Macy’s initiative boosted by better performance online and stronger sales on moderately priced products including private labels. The company, with relatively high debt and continuing restructuring...

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Prepare to listen to your elders more scrupulously as changing demographics have a more profound effect on retail. The over-55 set already has become the scourge of American politics and AARP a powerful interest group, but less attention has been paid to the effect of older consumers on the economy. Free spending younger adults continue to be the focus of advertising and much of the consumer...

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Now that Wal-Mart is abandoning its monthly sales reports, don’t expect to have much of an idea of how the retail industry as a whole is performing every 30 days or so. Since it’s the largest retailer in the world, not having its monthly figures completely destroys the overall monthly picture of chain stores’ health in this country. “This decision aligns investors with the...

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Supervalu, in announcing the replacement of Jeff Noddle as CEO with former Wal-Mart Americas president and CEO Craig Herkert, gets an executive who has built an expertise in driving a multiple format retail operation with efficiency and improving sales. He may be just what Supervalu needs right now as it begins moving into a new phase of its transition, one that results from the 2006...

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Just in time for a proxy fight showdown, Target’s management posted some good news – or at least put some decent news in the best possible light – when it released its April financial results. Better yet, it was able to garner a double vote of confidence from analysts. J.P. Morgan Securities and Credit Suisse revised their ratings on Target shares from neutral to “overweight” and...

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Many traditional retailers hope that their websites will drive consumers to stores and build their established brand because, although appreciative of the income Internet-based commerce provides, they have fixed investments in real estate and marketing they want to leverage. However, in some cases, it’s the store and established brand that are driving consumers to the web purchasing....

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Alberstons LLC announced this week that it was rolling out Safeway’s O Organics line of natural foods, and the move demonstrates why private labels that have grown with the recession won’t fade when it ends. Retailer efforts to make store brands more attractive and integral to the way they approach the consumer ensure generous support for private label development will continue. Still,...

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Compare this April’s results for Walmart stores and Sam’s Club with those in March and you can get a pretty good idea of how important the Easter shift was to retail results, and how Wall Street estimates aren’t a great standard against which to weigh actual performance. In April, comparable stores sales, those for stores open at least a year, at Walmart outlets gained 5.9 percent without...

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Closeout retailer Big Lots is bucking some serious trends this year, both on a national and corporate level. While other big retailers are cutting back new stores or shedding their existing portfolios, the Columbus, Ohio-based company is doing the opposite. Not only that, management decided to undertake its first store-expansion program in five years. Big Lots, which operates about 1,300 stores...

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