August 15, 2022 by David Pinto
David Pinto, H-E-B
2022, Issue 08-15-2022, Issues
Ask 100 people to name the two best Beatles songs and you’re likely to get 200 different answers. The point is, identifying the best of anything is not all that easy. To the contrary, it’s a daunting assignment. Which brings us to the subject for today. Can anyone here name the best retailer? Or the
July 11, 2022 by David Pinto
David Pinto, Walmart
2022, Issue 07-11-2022, Issues, Opinion

All early evidence points to an inescapable fact: Walmart is serious about expanding its customer base by upgrading its offerings, presentation and consumer options, both in-store and online. Initial documentation of the retailer’s intent came with the opening, earlier this year, of an upscale store in Springdale, Ark., a location adjacent to its Bentonville, Ark.,
June 20, 2022 by David Pinto
David Pinto, supermarkets
2022, Issue 06-20-2022, Issues, Opinion

Amid the myriad retailing developments that have distinguished — for good or ill — the retail landscape thus far in 2022, perhaps the most surprising (though not entirely unexpected) alteration has been the emergence (or reemergence) of the supermarket segment of the mass retailing community. If this re-ignition has taken some industry people by surprise,
May 23, 2022 by David Pinto
David Pinto, employees, Fortune magazine
2022, Issue 05-23-2022, Issues
As the publication does each year, Fortune magazine named the “100 best companies to work for” in its April/May issue. Many of the usual suspects — Hewlett Packard, Marriott, Bank of America, FedEx, Hyatt Hotels, American Express, Genentech — made the list. More surprising was the exclusion of all but a precious few mass retailers.
April 18, 2022 by David Pinto
buyers, Chain Drug Review, David Pinto, MMR, Racher Press, retailing, sellers
2022, Issue 04-18-2022, Issues

Among the assignments the editorial staff at Racher Press, publisher of MMR and Chain Drug Review, carries out with alacrity and a degree of professionalism is that of bringing buyers and sellers together, of greasing the table where buyers and sellers can meet and move their businesses forward. So it was on a chilly Tuesday
March 21, 2022 by David Pinto
David Pinto, mass retail industry leaders, Racher Press
2022, Issue 03-21-2022, Issues, Opinion

On Thursday, March 3, the editors of Racher Press, publisher of MMR and Chain Drug Review, gathered together five industry-leading personalities to discuss the state of the world and the retailing industry. Without naming names, those on hand included a senior executive with one of the nation’s leading food retailers, two senior consumer packaged goods
February 28, 2022 by David Pinto
David Pinto, retail pharmacists
2022, Issue 02-28-2022, Issues, Opinion

The retail pharmacist, backbone of the retail community’s battle with COVID-19, is pushing back against the punishing demands being exacted in the war against the current pandemic. With good reason. In their unending war with COVID, U.S. retailers are, understandably, asking more of the in-store pharmacist than can reasonably be requested — or demanded. In
January 31, 2022 by David Pinto
David Pinto, Kmart
2022, Issue 01-31-2022, Issues, Opinion

As we relive American retailing history, which we occasionally do, we’re reminded that Kmart, once the largest general merchandise retailer in the United States, has dwindled a bit in size. The current store count for the former Troy, Mich., dynamo is … five. Five? That’s correct. In mid-January, Kmart’s holding company announced that it plans
January 17, 2022 by David Pinto
David Pinto, Walmart
2022, Issue 01-17-2022, Issues
Later this year, 60 years will have passed since the first Walmart opened its doors in Rogers, Ark., the town that borders the retailer’s Bentonville headquarters. Put another way, most Americans don’t remember the United States without a Walmart at which to shop or peruse or merely gossip about or await the day when the
December 13, 2021 by David Pinto
Black Friday, David Pinto
2021, Issue 12-13-2021, Issues
Once upon a time, the term Black Friday was coined, and loosely accepted, as the day that the U.S. retail community slid into the black, turning a profit for the year. It was a loose interpretation of an otherwise impossible number to gauge; it was equally loosely adhered to by the retail community. After all,
November 29, 2021 by David Pinto
David Pinto, governor, Helena Foulkes, Rhode Island
2021, Issue 11-29-2021, Issues, Opinion

Helena Foulkes is running for governor of Rhode Island. For those among you — very few, I’m certain — who don’t know Helena by name, reputation or both, she has been, over the past two decades, one of the significant contributors to the mass retailing community. For a time, she held the No. 2 position
November 15, 2021 by David Pinto
Chicago, David Pinto, MMR, women's event
2021, Issue 11-15-2021, Issues, Opinion

Late last month, the editors of Mass Market Retailers hosted a reception and dinner in Chicago. The occasion was to recognize several of the growing number of women who are starting to lead and shape mass market retailing in America. The event was noteworthy for several reasons. For openers, there were the women themselves, leaders