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The New Age of Discovery
One commodity retailers never seem to run out of is problems. We’ve seen no shortage of business challenges in recent years, as brick-and-mortar retailers have wrestled with overcapacity, flat...
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Supervalu’s Unsuper Future
In its most recent fiscal year it scored $36.1 in sales volume, driven by a widely diverse portfolio of assets. Those assets include a large-scale wholesale business plus many retail stores ranging...
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Sleight of Hand
The Touch, the Feel — but Not the Performance — of Cotton The recent ruling by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to fine four retailers, including Amazon.com and Macy’s, for mislabeling textiles made...
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Tesco Felled By Hubris, Leaves USA
Quitting the country is the easy part. Now, what about all that infrastructure? Chronicle of a Failure Foretold Years from now, MBA students will be puzzling over how Tesco, the British food retailer,...
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MK is no LV: It’s Not Coach Either
Is this any way to manage a Jet Set brand? Maybe, if you’re looking for a quick exit. Listening to Michael Kors CFO Joe Parsons speak at ICR on January 16, 2013 on the Kors Jet Set aesthetic—spanning...
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The 10 Commandments of Home
TO: Ron Johnson, Plano, TX FROM: A Higher Authority RE: The Way to the Promised Land Cecil B. DeMille, where are you now that we need you? The expedition that Ron Johnson is leading the Penney-ites on...
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Bribery, Felony or Line Item?
Are we all felons bribing our way though international commerce or victims of corruption, forced to pay the price of admission? Let’s face it. Bribery is a cottage industry in many countries—part of...
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How Trader Joe’s Lures Shoppers With Quirky Products and Brands
Trader Joe’s is undoubtedly the nation’s most successful limited-assortment grocery chain; lines actually go around the block in New York City’s two outposts during the holidays. So what’s really going...
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The Green Marketing Act
You got rid of the landline three years ago because two-thirds of your calls were from telemarketers. Then you downgraded your cable service wondering why you were paying so much for so little. Now you...
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Private Labels, Public Nuisances, and Captured Moments
All the recent hubbub over a certain Connecticut homemaker’s image and brand is only the tip of a major merchandising movement that is starting to consume the home furnishings field. As national brands...
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Land Of Opportunity To Barren Wasteland
“Bubble Capitalism” Crushes the American Dream Forget the cresting, breaking and other visible economic waves we discern on the surface of our economy — all accompanied by “cyclical” blathering of the...
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How Do Changes in Brand Loyalty Shift Marketing Responsibilities?
Supermarket retailers are facing a sea change when it comes to how the products they sell are marketed. That responsibility is going to migrate from manufacturers to the retailers themselves before too...
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Unintended Consequences: The Price Race to the Bottom
Conventional supermarket retailers can’t catch a break — even sometimes. Conventional operators — Kroger, Safeway and the like — face a vast array of competition developing on all sides. That includes...
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The Harder They Fall
Consumers love celebrities and are more than willing to fork over billions of dollars for things they endorse. But do you want them to land on your product when they fall from grace? That multi-million...
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People Improvement is a New Frontier of Growth
In my last article, I addressed the importance of “individualizing” store growth plans based on each store’s metrics and specific DNA. Now, let’s discuss the next step in the process — looking further...
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Re-Urbanizing America
Suburban Sprawl Gives Way to the Not-So-Mean Streets of the Big City The Great American Dream isn’t dead, but it’s certainly on life support. After decades of unprecedented growth, suburbia has been...
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CVS: Blowing Smoke? Or Truly Concerned for our Health?
I resent the fact that I can’t walk down a street in New York City without breathing in a potentially lethal amount of second-hand smoke. So imagine my satisfaction when, on February 5, CVS announced...
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Your Local Fruit Stand is a Bellwether
On the corner of 7th Avenue and 12th Street in Manhattan is a fruit and vegetable cart. Others just like it are scattered across New York City. They tend to be run by hardworking immigrants willing to...
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Dov Charney is a Joke: A Dirty Joke and a Business Joke
The media at large has publicly exposed enough of the “dirty” part of this “jokester” that I don’t need to pile on more. Although it might be a more titillating read to add more dirt to the pile, I’ll...
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Tiffany Sues Costco! What’s Up?
In the land of the brand, the Holy Grail, surely, is building a brand that’s universally known and is in constant mention by consumers. Or is it? There’s such a thing as too much familiarity. There are...
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