Retail Industry Archive

Many media outlets have picked up a report by two professors, Michael Norton of the Harvard Business School and Leonard Lee, of the Columbia Business School, contending that warehouse clubs aren’t necessarily a bargain for shoppers because they encourage them to purchase more than they intended to buy, however, what the stories don’t say is that the report concedes shopping at Costco and...

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Walgreens announced new executive appointments on Friday that indicate that it is boosting its ability to drive more sales from existing stores and that it retains a fondness for executives who worked for Wal-Mart. The drug store chain appointed Wade Miquelon executive vice president and CFO, and John Spina corporate vice president of retail integration and new format development. Miquelon was...

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Spartan Stores is a food distributor and supermarket operator that is an institution in Michigan, and with that state particularly troubled in the recession, the company is providing support in ways that demonstrate its understanding of local challenges. Indeed, in an era when a small group of very large retailers are increasingly dominating major industry sectors, an ability to deliver goods...

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Even in doing celebrity promotions, Hot Topic keeps its image in mind, picking the bad guy to star in its Harry Potter marketing campaign. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince star Tom Felton introduced an exclusive new line of products at a Hot Topics location in Paramus, N.J. — a retailing hub amid the New York City suburbs — that is being launched in conjunction with the...

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Yesterday, this blog noted that Lowe’s has been catching up with Home Depot as the home improvement store of choice for consumers, and Pamela Goodfellow, senior analyst at BIGresearch, which conducted the June Retail Report cited in the post, detailed why that might be the case. Location seems to play a role, with Lowe’s frequently favoring sites that are higher profile and tied more...

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While some pundits point to June retail sales figures as evidence that the economy remains on the skids, something else is going on they’re not taking into consideration. Retailers are making a decision not to sacrifice profits to revenues, curtailing promotional sales events, scaling back slow moving inventory and even accepting out of stocks in some cases – or, in the parlance, leaving...

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Home Depot is losing its edge in home improvement retailing according to a BIGresearch report that detailed consumer preference for the top chains in the sector. According to the research firm’s June Retail Ratings report, Wal-Mart led gainers when adults were asked where they shop most often for home improvement products, up 1.1 percent to rate as top choice of 6.3 percent of consumers...

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The demise of Linens ‘N Things represents a particular opportunity for Bed, Bath & Beyond in the back to school season because promotions in that selling window were something that the departed home specialist did well. In fact, Linens ‘N Things helped define how back to school is presented these days, particularly as regards off-to-college students. It was among the first retailers to...

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Best Buy is jumping into the cellphone retail market with big plans to grab a 15 percent share of the business. But new CEO Brian Dunn, who seems particularly hot on the mobile-retail concept, might want to think twice — the crowded space is already littered with the bodies of some successful and failed competitors, and Best Buy hasn’t explained how and why it can prevail against a...

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The drift away from bargain retailers may have begun despite the depth of the recession, as an Accenture study indicates that fewer consumers are shopping at bargain-oriented stores. Bargain retailers have been a refuge in the recession, drawing consumers who might not have shopped them in better times. Still, retail observers expect many consumers in a recovery to again start shopping favorite...

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