Retailers across the spectrum are trying to make getting a meal on the table easier for consumers but complicating that attempt is the reality that convenience means different things to different people, according to a study by The Hartman Group. The study determined that 66 percent of consumers shopping for food and beverages will say convenience is very if not extremely important. Only 34...
Retail Industry Archive
June 2009
Once a year, in a gala atmosphere, Wal-Mart conducts its annual meeting, trotting out stars, featuring cheering associates, touting another annum of expansion and, in recent years, dealing with a source of frustration, the company’s share price. Despite gains in revenues, comparable store sales and profits during the recession, Wal-Mart share price has bounced around since it tumbled with the...
Consumer intent to purchase is rising a study by research firm NPD Group suggests, but the sales benefit from that may be limited to the very same bargain retailers that have been most successful in the recession thus far. NPD’s Retail Response Indicator, which measures consumer spending intentions on scale where zero corresponds to definitive plans to spend less and 100 represents definitive...
Picture this: Two women shopping in the home furnishings section of a Target store, clearly a mother and daughter, clearly setting up the younger woman’s first household. Well dressed and groomed, even if the jeans-clad daughter is more casual in style than her mother, they are a picture of middle-class consumerism straight out of Madison Avenue. Evaluating various domestic products, they...
As chief investment officer of Haverford Trust, Hank Smith had a major interest in the proxy contest between William Ackman and Target’s management led by CEO Gregg Steinhafel. Smith oversees an investment portfolio that includes 1.06 million Target shares, and naturally followed the struggle with interest. Rather than viewing it as a disruption or distraction or disappointment, Smith said...
Target not withstanding, some contests between shareholders and retail management go to the folks holding the stock, as a vote at Saks annual meeting demonstrated on Wednesday. While it failed on a measure to withhold votes and defeat board nominee C. Warren Neel, hedge fund P. Schoenfeld Asset Management, which holds a 1.5 percent stake in Saks, did convince shareholders to vote for two of the...
Retailer’s can’t blame the weather for soft May results, except maybe Fred’s, and, in some cases, taking the month’s weather into considerations makes performance look worse than the basic numbers indicate. According to climate monitor Planalytics, softline retailers, those selling clothing as their core operations, enjoyed a 17 percent boost on its scale of weather-related demand...
TheStreet.com might have thought dumping MyGofer into its The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week column was witty, but the store’s developer, Sears Holding, doesn’t think its smart to judge an idea without a fair trial. The first MyGofer store, which combines online and showroom ordering with quick store pick up and delivery options, opened quietly during May in Joliet, Ill. and...
Wal-Mart is strengthening the link it has been forging between merchandise and entertainment particularly with younger consumers as it launches a Miley Cyrus & Max Azria exclusive clothing line timed to get a publicity boost from the singer’s upcoming concert tour. The retailer will sponsor the Cyrus tour, scheduled to hit 45 cities in late summer and autumn. In developing the clothing...
MyGofer, a new retail format that Sears Holding is testing in Joliet, Ill., near Chicago, is not unlike a format Wal-Mart’s ASDA division is trying in the United Kingdom. In fact, it’s not unlike a format Sears operated in the days of yore. MyGofer shoppers can order online or at kiosks inside a showroom at the location, then pick up their purchases at a drive-through or arrange delivery....
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