Content about Merchandising

NEW YORK In a high-stakes campaign to fire up its front-end appeal, reaffirm its relationship with America’s consumers and rejuvenate its same-store sales, Walgreens has gone to its bench.

Walgreens has named one of its veteran operations people, Mike Arnoult, to the key post of VP in charge of Customer Centric Retailing. Until last month, the post was held by Chong Bang, who left the company in mid-December to oversee merchandising at Toronto-based Shoppers Drug Mart.

NEW YORK If any retail observer still doubted the determination of Walgreens’ top managers to shake the company to its foundation, recharge its merchandising mix and rejuvenate customer traffic and interest, the pending departure of David Van Howe should resolve any lingering doubts. Walgreens is serious about doing business in a new way.

NEW YORK Look for more changes in the look and feel of the Walgreens drug store.

It was easy to like Vern Brunner.

As first reported Wednesday, Feb. 25 by DrugStoreNews.com, L'Oreal Paris' sudden and unexpected decision to close its two U.S. retail stores effective Saturday is important, as it not only serves as a reflection of the current times but also means that retailers will likely see greater in-store innovation as L'Oreal further leverages what it learned from these "Living Labs" to enhance the in-store shopping experience at mass.