Cover Story

Top 100 Retailers

The Nation's Retail Power Players
Executive Suite
David P. Schulz
The Nation's Retail Power Players

This year has been a bumpy one for retailers as the nation’s economy proceeds with its herky-jerky, high-unemployment recovery. Early on, off-pricers, discounters and grocers fared better than general merchandise and apparel specialty chains. Walmart, playing the everyday low price card, was especially blessed.

Smash and Grab

New Georgia law seeks to minimize crime’s reward by boosting the risk
Cover Story
Len Lewis
New Georgia law seeks to minimize crime’s reward by boosting the risk

The metro Atlanta area has endured an epidemic of gang-related smash-and-grabs over the past several years. Now, it is aggressively attacking the problem through tough new legislation that increases penalties for juvenile and adult offenders, intensive community outreach programs and unprecedented collaboration between retailers, law enforcement agencies and county prosecutors.

From Doom to Vroom

Don’t count regional malls out
Cover Story
Susan Reda
Don’t count regional malls out

It was November 2008. The headline in Newsweek asked, “Is The Mall Dead?”

The accompanying article painted a grim picture, pinning diminishing mall traffic on retail cannibalization, the repopulation of cities and assorted other problems.

Guess What? Men Shop, Too!

And retailers are paying attention
Executive Suite
Susan Reda
And retailers are paying attention

In an industry obsessed with the wants and needs of women, men have been an afterthought among retail and marketing executives for as long as many can remember.

America's Favorite Brands

With SKU reductions underway, which will survive?
Cover Story
Susan Reda
With SKU reductions underway, which will survive?

Americans have an ongoing love affair with brands. Threaten to take away their Dawn dishwashing detergent or their Kleenex and you'd better be ready for a knock-down, drag-out fight: Those items, along with Bounty paper towels and Crest toothpaste, are among the products shoppers choose most often when they roll their carts up and down the supermarket aisles.

Delivering the World

Navigating obstacles in pursuit of global supply chain optimization
Executive Suite
Len Lewis
Navigating obstacles in pursuit of global supply chain optimization

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20 Ideas Worth Stealing

The real crime? Not helping yourself to at least one of them.
Executive Suite
Susan Reda
The real crime? Not helping yourself to at least one of them.

Creativity is a hallmark of the retail industry, and retailers have continued to demonstrate just how inventive, resourceful and imaginative they are over the last 18 months – no small feat given the financial challenges experienced by businesses and consumers alike.

Half Full — or Half Empty?

Executive Suite
Susan Reda

Last December, STORES predicted that economic pressures “should ease” by the second quarter of 2009, that sales of private-label merchandise would slip and that the electronic wallet would finally become a reality. Oops.

On the other hand, we correctly predicted that no one would be spared from credit woes in 2009, that retail sustainability projects would be more closely scrutinized by Wall Street and shareholders, and that the “do more with less” mantra would emerge as the leading IT strategy.

Markets with Muscle

Three hot countries retailers need to watch
Cover Story
Susan Reda
Three hot countries retailers need to watch

Have you begun vetting the VIM nations?
While Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico have been somewhat obscured by the shadow cast by the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations, all offer varied and undeniable opportunities for retailers pursuing global expansion.

Boris Planer, research director for macroeconomics at Planet Retail, insists that despite difficulties in the global economy, there continue to be several trends and developments that point to growth prospects and provide reasons for retailers to invest in the VIM markets.

First Steps

Retailers make small advances into the world of carbon footprinting
Executive Suite
Susan Reda
Retailers make small advances into the world of carbon footprinting

Savvy Wal-Mart shoppers can evaluate a price tag in a nanosecond. Within the next few years, executives at the world’s largest retailer are betting that customers will become just as discerning when it comes to labels that provide data about a product’s carbon footprint, water usage and waste.

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