Retail sales in February were down from January but up year over year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, suggesting that consumers are still spending, despite inflation that remains stubbornly high. The figures were released earlier this month against a backdrop of mixed messages on the economy’s health. The tech sector was announcing big layoffs
The “retailification” of health care could be great news for rural Americans, making routine medical services more accessible and affordable in communities that are currently underserved. Paul Schuhmacher, a managing director in the health care practice of the global management consultancy AArete, points to Dollar General’s partnership with mobile health provider DocGo as a potential
The exhibit floor at NRF 2023: Retail’s Big Show was a cornucopia of technological innovation, packed with exhibitors showing off the latest robots, kiosks and mobile point-of-sale solutions, as well as scads of artificial intelligence applications designed to help retailers do everything from addressing theft within their stores to better forecasting their inventory needs. There
Shrink is a problem that’s as old as retailing, and it’s actually a number of separate issues — theft by customers (shoplifting), theft by employees, vendor fraud, operational errors and things like damage, waste and spoilage. But, as has been noted previously on this page, the shoplifting problem has increased dramatically in recent years, driven
Holiday shoppers this year are facing rising prices, another interest rate hike that will make using their credit cards more costly, and the threat posed by new COVID variants, the flu and a surge in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections. Despite all this, most forecasts for retail sales this holiday shopping season are pretty optimistic.
Imagine if more than seven out of every 10 shoppers in a physical store, after pushing their carts down various aisles and picking out the products they wanted, simply abandoned those carts when they got to the checkout line, and left without buying anything. That’s exactly what’s happening online, according to a recent report by
Supermarkets have long used their perishable food departments to wow shoppers and to convey an image of food quality and freshness that helps elevate shoppers’ perceptions of the whole store. The importance of fresh food has only grown lately, as the pandemic led Americans to change their grocery shopping and cooking habits in ways that
The pandemic caused many consumers to embrace online shopping. Will inflation make them kick it to the curbside? A recent survey by category growth design firm ChaseDesign found that the number of retail customers using buy online pickup in-store (BOPIS) services “all the time” fell by one-third (45% down to 32%) in 2021 and said
Online grocery shoppers may not be exactly who we think they are, a new study suggests. Although they do tend to have higher salaries than their brick-and-mortar shopping counterparts, for example, it turns out that U.S. online grocery shoppers are not just members of a leisure class who shop from home because it’s easier and
“Where were you in ’62?” That was the tagline for the 1973 movie American Graffiti, which offered a look back at a simpler time just 11 years before the film’s release date. The movie, written and directed by George Lucas (who would direct the first Star Wars movie just five years later), introduced American audiences
Earlier this month retailers had a chance to vent their frustration about the high fees they incur when their customers pay for their purchases with a credit or debit card. The occasion was a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing called “Excessive Swipe Fees and Barriers to Competition in the Credit and Debit Card Systems.” Judiciary Committee
April 22 is Earth Day, an annual occasion first observed in 1970 and meant to raise awareness and inspire action. This year the theme is “Invest in the Planet,” and some retailers are doing just that. Walmart, the planet’s largest retailer, recently announced that its Project Gigaton initiative is now more than halfway to its