Kmart keeps trying new ways to push itself as a fashion destination for budget conscious shoppers and brought actress and apparel design partner Jaclyn Smith to promote her brand to “frugalistas,” as she called them, at the retailer’s first-ever trunk show event. Smith appeared yesterday at a Kmart just outside New York’s Penn Station touting her namesake line and signing autographs...
Retail Industry Archive
May 2009
Banana Republic is bringing back an executive from its glory days in the 1990s to help it execute a more complex plan for product presentation. Gap has appointed Julie Rosen senior vice president of merchandising for Banana Republic, reporting to Jack Calhoun, the division’s president and himself former executive vice president of merchandising and marketing. Rosen will lead all product...
Social network marketing can be complex, but a reader commenting about an earlier post on this blog, Tesco Twitters Its Way to Family Success at Fresh & Easy, demonstrated how store employees can come to the rescue even when the marketing department falls short. In fact, it demonstrates that, as they expand participation in social networks, retailers might want to rethink how they look at...
Swine flu fears will put retailers who have been expanding health services on the front lines for prevention and treatment, providing their initiatives with new recognition. Headlines might focus on swine flu’s global advance, but retailers will get the credit where it counts, locally. For example, in Michigan, the Kent County Health Department is working with supercenter operator Meijer and...
More consumers are purchasing gift cards but they’re spending less on them. A study by the Hartman Group and National Research Network indicated that between September 2007 and August 2008, 52 percent of consumer purchased at least one gift card while in the period from March 2008 and February 2009 the proportion was 57 percent. In contrast, between September ’07 and August ’08, the...
Wal-Mart vice chairman Eduardo Castro-Wright told the Barclays Capital Retail and Restaurant Conference last week that, despite recent success, he was frustrated that the company isn’t getting the recognition it deserves, and he used Target to help him justify his dissatisfaction. He was expressing his frustration about Wal-Mart’s share price, and made a case that the retailer’s...
Safeway didn’t have an easy first quarter, one in which currency exchange rates, gas prices and other external factors weighted in, but its results provide more evidence of how important private label is in retailing today. In fact, Safeway got a lift from private label in two different ways. First, it sold more and, because own brands have higher margins, it profited more from the sales. In...
How quickly Target should grow its food business is among the issues chewed over in the tit-for-tat proxy battle between management and investor William Ackman, and the debate reveals a lot about Target plans and limitations. Target’s management recently announced that the company’s discount stores would add produce and meat to an operation that only recently saw a significant expansion of...
- QVC Black Friday Marathon Starts Run for Cyber Monday
- Target Talks Cheap as Black Friday Battle Beckons
- Sears Face(book)s Black Friday
- Target Pumping Up Its Image with the Right Food
- Costco Challenges Coke and the Stakes Could Be High
- When Walmart Comes to Town, Other Retailers Self Destruct
- Blackhawk Part Two: Gift Cards Replace Banks as Consumers Get Creative
- Target Is Missing a Big Opportunity to Open More Urban Stores
- Blackhawk Helping Supermarkets Grab a Chunk of Everyone's Gift Card Business
- The New Normal Won't Emerge as a Walmart World
- Would You Bet on Black Friday?: Q&A With Bookmaker.com
- Macy's Holiday Prospects May Be Good But Long-Term Chances Murkier
- Supermarkets Adding Bars So Gourmet Consumers Will Entertain Thoughts of Shopping
- CVS Retail Operations Power Forward
- Timing Is Right for Rue21's IPO, if it Doesn't Overexpand
- TheFind.com Give Bargain Hunters More Options Online
- Costco Challenges Coke and the Stakes Could Be High
- Wal-Mart, Target and Costco Shine as Private Labels Challenge National Brands
- Walmart Garanimals Expansion Signals Gentler Approach to Holidays
- Booksellers Take On Walmart, Target, Amazon Over Discounts -- But It's Just Business as Usual
- Pizza and Cupcakes Keep 'em Coming to 7-Eleven as Cigarette Business Slides
- Gap Stands Behind Flailing Banana Republic
- Prediction Calls for Happy Black Friday
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- P&G Retail Push Makes Sense, Risks Aside
- Walmart Readies Smaller Stores for Smarter Growth
- Duckwall-ALCO Rights Itself Amidst Recession
- Lauren Conrad YouTube Tops Kohl's Online Fashion Effort
- Giant Supermarkets Seek Advantage of Small Stores
- Neil Cole Steps Out From Brother Kenneth's Shadow With Iconix -- Or Does He?
- Costco Sees Key Product Categories Turn Positive in September
- Target Fashions a Comeback from Recession with Carlos Falchi, Jean Paul Gaultier
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