Candie’s and Kohl’s will have one more fling with Britney Spears, then move on to a new face for the brand. Yet the annual change, which saw Spears take over from Hayden Panettiere as Candie’s celebrity spokesperson in 2008, will be very much on the Radar. In fact, it will be based on Radar, Spears new music video, were she appears outfitted in Candie’s attire. Iconix, which owns...
Retail Industry Archive
July 2009
Food has become an important category for retailers trying to cope with a tight-fisted consumer in a prolonged recession, but it can be a risky business, particularly as stores take on more direct responsibility for delivering to the public products that can cause serious illness. Over the past week or two, Kroger particularly has gotten pounded and has had to run a series of recalls that...
Big Lots is cleaning up its act and is well positioned to grow as recovery takes hold in the market, noted Wedbush Morgan analyst Joan Storms after meeting with company executives including CEO Steve Fishman and touring a store near the company’s Columbus, Ohio headquarters used to evaluate new ideas. Storms told Bnet she was impressed with key initiatives and operational tests the company...
If retail success is based, as the saying goes, on location, location, location, then it’s important to fit in a suitable spot, something that Meijer has recognized and Kroger realized some time ago. Now, though, Meijer’s move to develop a smaller store concept in the Chicago suburb of Niles, Ill., could give it the jump on Kroger in a critical market. The new Meijer will focus on those...
One way Best Buy can differentiate itself from key competitors, particularly big, non-specialist rivals such as Wal-Mart, is by offering technology products and services beyond the range of what its competitors can practically fit into their operations. In that light, it isn’t surprising that Best Buy has begun selling electric vehicles. The initiative is a test that includes electric bikes...
Continuity is the word at Kroger and the appointment of Rodney McMullen as president and COO more firmly fixes in the corporate suite an executive central to the development of recent company strategy. McMullen succeeds former president and CEO Don McGeorge, who is retiring. Citigroup analyst Deborah Weinswig, in a research note on McMullen’s appointment, pointed to his history of...
Tom Falk, chairman and chief executive of Kimberly-Clark, said the company’s plans to eliminate another 1,600 salaried positions was necessary if the personal care products company was to stay competitive against an increasing threat from private-label brands. If the company’s latest recovery plan falters, however, could union workers be next to face the dreaded pink slips?...
Meijer’s driving reason for developing a new 102,000 foot store format in the Chicago suburb of Niles, Ill. - one that will be oriented toward food, health and beauty aids and pharmacy – is to facilitate expansion by fitting into locations that would be impossible for the company’s full-sized supercenters. Meijer spokesman Frank Guglielmi said the new format, half the size of the...
June unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics paint an ugly picture as to recovery hopes, but employment in both the general economy and in retail may be poised to improve. An unemployment review conducted by outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which tracks job cut plans rather following the BLS method of compiling current dismissal statistics, said the...
Although it seems to have come as a shock to some, Wal-Mart’s decision to embrace employer health care mandates as part of health care reform shouldn’t surprise anyone who has followed the company for any period of time. On July 24, 2007, then CEO Lee Scott outlined Wal-Mart’s position on health care reform and other issues impacting lower income workers in an appearance before the...
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