Retail

News Net 5 in Cleveland, Ohio reports on one retailer’s desire to capitalize on an Ohio State victory (that did not happen) in last night’s championship game. Macy’s made a losing bet on the Buckeyes and now has T-shirts that stores can’t sell, proclaiming Ohio State college football’s national champions. Three of the department stores […]

If you think your local Target is beginning to resemble a Pottery Barn, it may not be your imagination. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports on a new lawsuit, and others over the years, that accuse Target of copying other retailers’ products: Williams-Sonoma, which operates Pottery Barn and other chains, claims in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday […]

Gawker Media’s The Consumerist is always a good read (thanks to editor Ben Popken). Today, particularly so. Here’s one story from the retail sector: A huge-ass box of pot on its way to a Philadelphia drug dealer was mistakenly rerouted to the local Kmart, Saturday, where it was discovered by an employee in the stock […]

Saw this in the New York Times and I had to chuckle: The chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores, H. Lee Scott Jr., said yesterday that the introduction of upscale products, like silk camisoles and 300-thread-count sheets, had proved “choppier than it should be” and that the company had “moved too far too fast” with fashionable […]

Uniforms at retail help define a brand. Last week I was at Hotel Monaco in Salt Lake City where the staff wears tie-dyed oxford cloth shirts. It’s easy for me to feel at home in such a place. According to the Houston Chronicle, the world’s largest retailer is now looking to spiff up its outfits. […]

That’s the big news from the ad world today. Ad Age and Adweek have respective articles. Currently, the bulk of the account is split between Austin’s GSD&M and Kansas City’s Bernstein-Rein. And for a long time, too, as Adweek mentions: GSD&M has worked for the retailer for the past 19 years. Bernstein-Rein has been on […]

Wired looks at one of the greatest retail success stories in history. Apple says its stores are now making more than $1 billion in sales per quarter. Just two years ago, the stores were making $1 billion a year — and at that time they were the fastest-growing retail operation in history, beating the previous […]

From South Florida Sun Sentinel: For years, Janey Karp has battled depression and anxiety with the help of prescription drugs. Though millions of Americans do the same, Karp admits she is intensely private and can’t help but feel stigmatized for needing medication to feel normal. So when the 53-year-old Palm Beach resident read the Walgreens […]

WXIA News 11: Free beer while shopping — it’s a new idea brewing in Atlanta. While shoppers age 21-and-over browse $150 jeans at the stylish Bill Hallman Boutique in Virginia Highland, they can sip on a beer imported from Italy. The lure might sound like exactly what’s expected from an upscale, designer clothing store. The […]

NYT: The silvery mannequin in the window sports a sexy black sequined skirt with a butterfly tail and shear fringed halter top, her wrists weighted with $1,000 worth of Swarovski crystal bracelets. But above the matching scarf wrapped around her neck, where the head should be, sits a big red stop sign. n “Stop” as […]