All good things must come to end — including, after nearly four years, my contributions to this column. “Retail Rap” will soon be forging on without me. This is the first of two final columns I’ll be contributing, and I’ll beg your indulgence if I wax nostalgic at times in this, column number 99, and […]
Target
Retail Rap: The Grocery Evolution
There has been a lot of discussion in the last several years about the strength of the grocery sector. As discussed in my latest edition of Retail Rap, I think it’s clear that a big reason behind that success has been the evolution of different formats and the explosive growth of a new generation of […]
Black Friday 2014: West Michigan retailers announce Thanksgiving hours
Andrew Kuhn / MLive – GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Over the past two years, Black Friday has gained a solid six-hour foothold into Thanksgiving. This year, the line has moved from prime time to supper time. Most big box retailers and department stores, from Target to Kohl’s, will open at 6 p.m. on the holiday. […]
Why Amazon keeps cutting prices for consumer goods
Jennifer Booton / MarketWatch – Amazon.com Inc. is gradually lowering prices across several major consumer goods categories in an effort to bolster its retail business and better compete with offline retailers, a recent analysis of price trends conducted by Bernstein Research has revealed.
As more people buy consumer health, personal care, pet care and baby products from diapers to shampoo online, Amazon AMZN, +0.58% is “cutting prices to achieve scale,” Bernstein analysts said.
This could challenge industry margins for offline retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores WMT, +0.26% , Walgreen Co. WAG, +2.27% and Target Corp. TGT, +0.57% , and require them to adapt to a more “dynamic and deflationary online pricing environment,” they said.
For earliest doorbuster deals, skip Thanksgiving dinner
Justine Griffin / Herald-Tribune – And we thought they couldn’t go any earlier.
Some of the nation’s largest retail chains — Walmart, Best Buy, Macy’s and nearly a dozen others — will open their doors earlier than ever on Thanksgiving Day this holiday season — to the chagrin of some workers stuck with that duty.
Leading the charge are Best Buy, Toys R Us and J.C. Penney, with electronics, toys and department stores offering doorbuster deals as early as 5 p.m.
Macy’s, Kohl’s, Target and Walmart will open their stores across the country at 6 p.m.
Middle-class shoppers more sensitive to back-to-school supply costs
Rick Romell & Kylie Gumbert / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – WEST MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The giant pencil cutouts screaming “One Big Sale Here” throughout the Target store are a dead giveaway: This is the country’s second-biggest shopping season. And for the great majority of Americans, the annual back-to-school extravaganza is unfolding across an increasingly price-sensitive […]
