Content about Retailing

ST. LOUIS — Save-A-Lot on Monday announced that it was expanding its reach by opening five new stores in the Chicago market.

The hard-discount, limited-assortment grocery retailer and subsidiary of Supervalu would nearly double its presence in the area, bringing its total Chicagoland stores to 13. The five stores, located in Chicago's South Side, range in size from 11,000 to 21,000 sq. ft.

Move over Snuggie and ShamWow — more direct-response products are coming to retail.


“Over the past five years, there’s been an explosion of these products at retail,” said Tom Haire, editor of Response Magazine, a publication that covers the direct-response industry. “Retailers see products that fly off the shelves because they’ve been advertised so heavily, and manufacturers see an opportunity to extend the life of the brand.”

It's as if they have some special vision — some special lens that reveals secrets about the customer and how she shops. Some retailers see things that the rest of us don't. Or, as one supplier told Drug Store News, "It's like they think in 3D." DSN profiles 10 visionary retailers and how their vision has fed new merchandising and marketing concepts that represent the best thinking in drug store retailing today. Click below to download the PDF of Visionary Retailers.

WASHINGTON — Retailers are ready to expand again, and likely will do so as the economy picks up, according to a new survey conducted by the charitable arm of the National Retail Federation and KPMG.

NEW YORK — Fujitsu on Monday unveiled its latest checkout technology at the National Retail Federation trade show. According to the company, the new technology boasts reduced time in lines and a customer-friendly checkout experience.

NEW YORK — A shift in consumer shopping is helping to fuel sales of women’s fragrances at mass.


“Consumers are shifting their fragrance purchasing from high-end channels, such as department stores, to more mass-market channels, such as drug stores and supermarkets/hypermarkets,” stated research firm Euromonitor International. “While department stores have suffered a drop in foot traffic during the recession, store formats such as supermarkets/hypermarkets and mass merchandisers selling necessities have seen steady traffic levels.”


YONKERS, N.Y. — It seems that Americans' everyday items are getting a little smaller.

According to a new survey by Consumer Reports, many packaged goods are being scaled back as suppliers face increased energy costs, as well as rising prices of ingredients. Tod Marks, senior editor and resident shopping expert at Consumer Reports, said that higher commodity and fuel costs are expected to spike in food prices by as much as 3% this year.

CHICAGO — Boosted by a very weak comparison period, ShopperTrak’s National Retail Sales Estimate reported that total GAFO retail sales for the last Saturday before Christmas (Dec. 18), or "Super Saturday," increased a sharp 15.1%, compared with last year, while the company’s retail traffic index reported a similar 10.1% total U.S. foot traffic uptick for the same period.

WASHINGTON — With just days left before the holiday shopping season draws to a close, the National Retail Federation has increased its forecast as the economic environment gives way to increased consumer spending.

WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. — Supermarket retailer Tops Friendly Markets has opened its first stand-alone gas station at the site of a former Valero gas station, the chain said.

Tops, which operates 132 supermarkets in upstate New York and northern Pennsylvania, said the gas station has six pumps and a 1,600-sq.-ft. convenience store, rebranded as Tops Fresh Xpress.


BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart’s Neighborhood Market concept finally is getting its due more than 12 years after the first unit opened in late 1998. Next year, the company expected to open between 30 and 40 small stores, the majority of which will be Neighborhood Market units, in addition to a handful of pilot stores measuring less than 30,000 sq. ft. that the company views as a potential growth vehicle for either urban or rural markets.


NEW YORK — Consumers see smart phones as future personal, coupon-clipping shopper assistants, a global survey released Monday by Accenture found. According to the survey, 79% of smart-phone users would find it useful to download money-off coupons to their phones, and 73% of those shoppers would be receptive to being pinged with instant money-off coupons as they passed by an item in a store.