Monthly Archives: July 2010

Jul30

What’s different about the latest organized retail crime legislation

By Joe LaRocca, Senior Asset Protection Advisor | Published: July 30, 2010
Be the first to comment | Posted in Loss Prevention, Public Policy

Criminals, take notice: the federal ORC legislation initiative is still alive and well. A new bill was introduced in the House of Representatives – and that makes five in Congress – to establish the Organized Retail Theft Investigation and Prosecution Act of 2010. The bill defines ORC as “obtaining retail merchandise by illegal means for [...]

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Jul29

Top 10 back-to-school trends for 2010

By Ellen Davis, SVP | Published: July 29, 2010
9 Comments | Posted in Holidays, Research, Retail Trends

NRF’s back-to-school and back-to-college surveys were released several weeks ago. The bottom line? There’s good news, and there’s really good news: back-to-college spending will remain unchanged (remember, it stayed strong a year ago when the bottom fell out pretty much everywhere else) and back-to-school spending will bounce back to ’08 levels. All told, spending for [...]

Posted in: Holidays | Research | Retail Trends Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Jul28

Sales tax holidays mean win/win/win for retailers, shoppers and states

By Margaret Case Little, Director, Communications | Published: July 28, 2010
2 Comments | Posted in Public Policy, Retail Trends

Dating back to the Boston Tea Party, there’s just something about taxes that really irks the American public. While nearly all types of tax relief are a big hit with most of us, the current climate of budget shortfalls at both the state and federal level mean that relief is not in abundance in 2010. [...]

Posted in: Public Policy | Retail Trends Tagged , , |
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Jul22

Why Wal-Mart is spending millions to fight a $7,000 fine

By Joe LaRocca, Senior Asset Protection Advisor | Published: July 22, 2010
10 Comments | Posted in Loss Prevention, Retail Companies

Everyone who knows me knows that I’m a big fan of public-private sector partnerships, but in the case of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) vs. Wal-Mart, the government is going too far. OSHA is going after Wal-Mart for a $7,000 (yes seven-thousand dollar) fine, and the company has spent millions fighting the case. [...]

Posted in: Loss Prevention | Retail Companies Tagged , , , |
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Jul21

NPR highlights swipe fee fix being signed as part of financial reform

By Craig Shearman, VP, Government Affairs PR | Published: July 21, 2010
1 Comment | Posted in Public Policy

With President Obama signing a landmark swipe fee fix into law today as part of financial services reform legislation, National Public Radio ran a story this morning that focuses attention on the $48 billion in credit and debit fees paid by merchants and their customers each year. NPR reported on Morning Edition that merchants are [...]

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Jul21

Retailers get creative with back-to-school promotions

By Kathy Grannis, NRF spokesperson | Published: July 21, 2010
1 Comment | Posted in Marketing, Retail Companies

Ah, the joys of Summer…sunshine, sandals, swimming and sunscreen. This year’s “snowmageddon” is now just a memory. For children all over the country, it’s the best two and a half months of their lives! For parents, it’s a time to worry about babysitters, summer camps and bug repellent. Of course, with Summer also comes the annual ritual of back-to-school shopping. Too [...]

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Jul20

Retailers report increasing incidents of shoplifters using pepper spray to flee

By Joe LaRocca, Senior Asset Protection Advisor | Published: July 20, 2010
5 Comments | Posted in Loss Prevention, Retail Trends

Last week one of our members told me about several incidents of his employees being pepper sprayed while making basic shoplifting apprehensions. It only took a few minutes of research to find incidents just like these across the country. This serves as a good reminder for all of us to stress the importance of safety [...]

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Jul20

Lower your health care costs now … and later

By Neil Trautwein, VP, Health Care | Published: July 20, 2010
Be the first to comment | Posted in Events, Health Care, Public Policy, Retail Trends

Let’s face it – we had many (very many) objections to the new health care reform law. But our biggest concern of all was that it did very little immediately to constrain health care costs now and into the future. This was retail’s biggest and most sought-after health reform objective … and the new law [...]

Posted in: Events | Health Care | Public Policy | Retail Trends Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Jul19

Summer heat wave spurs demand of swimsuits, tents and lots of Gatorade

By Ellen Davis, SVP | Published: July 19, 2010
Be the first to comment | Posted in Retail Trends

I ended up inadvertently conducting a bit of retail research when I accompanied my husband to our local Dick’s Sporting Goods over the weekend. Even though we were there for a 3-wood (that’s a golf club, for those of you like me who don’t speak that language), a familiar pattern in shopping carts throughout the [...]

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Jul15

It’s the second most wonderful time of the year

By Kathy Grannis, NRF spokesperson | Published: July 15, 2010
Be the first to comment | Posted in Research, Video

It’s officially the back-to-school season and NRF’s latest Back-to-School/College survey found that parents are expected to shell out more than $600 on their school-aged children. Considering what a big time of year it is for retailers, here are a few highlights of the survey: The school shopping season is second only to Christmas and the other winter holidays. [...]

Posted in: Research | Video Tagged , , , , , , , |
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