Apr25
We have all seen news reports about the devastation caused by tornadoes in North Carolina and St. Louis. Nine days ago in Sanford, N.C., a retail hero in a Lowe’s Home Improvement store sprung into action saving up to 100 customers and employees from serious injury. On Saturday, April 16, Lowe’s store manager Michael Hollowell [...]
Posted in: Loss Prevention | Retail Companies Tagged Belk, business continuity, crisis management, disaster planning, Harris Teeter, Hurricane Katrina, Loss Prevention, Lowe's, Lowe's Home Improvement, Michael Hollowell, Y2K |
Apr21
I don’t know if you saw last week’s letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal by Retail Industry Leaders Association CEO Sandy Kennedy, but I recommend it to you. We agree with our colleagues at RILA over the urgent need to address sales tax inequities. This is not just a problem for big [...]
Apr21
Easter happens to be one of the biggest times of the year for retailers. Right up there with the other gift-giving holidays such as Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, Easter is expected to rake in more than $14 billion this year. That’s a lot of plastic Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies, fake grass and baskets, new [...]
Posted in: Holidays | Research Tagged apparel, BIGresearch, build-a-bear, Easter 2011, Easter gifts, Easter survey, Godiva, kmart, kroger, Macy's, MarthaStewart.com, NRF, Payless, Toys R Us |
Apr19
State retail associations play an important role interfacing with local legislators. Some groups – such as those in Arizona, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Texas – go a step beyond, developing strong loss prevention communities. This month I’m pleased to be a part of two state Organized Retail Crime meetings. On April 20, the Georgia Retail [...]
Apr13
Almost three years after the passage of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), both the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the retail industry are still struggling to meet the new requirements. As retailers are still assessing the large-scale impact of the CPSIA and molding their processes accordingly, NRF hosted a session on CPSIA implementation [...]
Posted in: Education | Events | Public Policy Tagged Consumer Product Safety Commission, Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, Consumer Product Safety Incident Database, CPSC, General Conformity Certificates, Intertek, Joseph Mohorovic, lead requirement, Merchandising, quality assurance, SKU, Supply Chain '11, testing frequency, testing protocols, testing standards, Virginia Thompson |
Apr12
The first day of NRF’s Global Supply Chain Summit came to a close with casual reception at the appropriately named Latitude 41 in the Columbus Renaissance hotel. Attendees wined, dined and discussed hot topics of the day, including supply chain talent development, key issues impacting the community and predictions on how the supply chain will [...]
Apr12
What do you get when you bring together executives from ocean shipper, railroad carrier and trucking companies? Really great advice for retailers on how to work together to move goods across the country and across the world. During yesterday’s Supply Chain ’11 session on partnering with transportation providers, Richard Markovich, International Logistics and Compliance for [...]
Apr11
In this morning’s opening keynote, “Retail and the New Principles for Success,” UPS Americas President Romaine Seguin began by discussing the complexity and constantly-changing environment of the global retailing community, saying, “Global commerce never stops moving.” It also never stops growing. Just take a look at the last eight months of retail sales. For UPS, [...]
Posted in: Education | Events | Retail Trends Tagged customer service, digital commerce, emerging markets, Forrester Research, Germany, global market expansion, global retailing community, Indonesia, logistics, Norway, recession, retail sales, Romaine Seguin, social media, Supply Chain '11, technology trends, UPS, Zappos |
Apr11
NRF’s inaugural Supply Chain Summit kicked off yesterday with golf, great networking and fabulous food. But the main focus of this event centers on creating a more open dialogue that benefits all retail supply chain partners and using that conversation to foster more community partnerships. NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jon [...]
Apr11
It was a very sad weekend in retail. Saturday morning in Amsterdam a gunman opened fire inside a local shopping mall, killing seven people and wounding 16 others. According to news reports, he then shot himself with a second weapon. On Friday evening in Brooklyn Park (MN), two employees were killed inside the break room [...]