Sears Aims to Boost Sales With Christmas Shopping in July

Is it too early to start thinking about Christmas shopping?
Apparently, Sears doesn’t think so.

The retailer and its corporate partners, including KMart, have launched special holiday sections called “Christmas Lane” on their Web sites — sure to become a big hit with those early bird holiday shoppers who start to panic when Labor Day rolls around.

The company also has opened Christmas boutiques at hundreds of its stores, MyFOXNY.com reports , a business move that aims to court holiday customers earlier than ever and get them to take advantage of the company’s layaway offers.

The year-end holidays typically represent a giant chunk — as much as half — of retailers’ annual revenues, and every year, the start of the holiday shopping season seems to creep earlier and earlier.

Retailers suffered through a particularly weak season last year as the United States suffered through the recession. The National Retail Federation reported a dismal 2.8 percent drop in the 2008 holiday season compared to the same period a year earlier.

It remains to be seen whether the concept of Christmas shopping in July will persuade skittish consumers to open their wallets.

But even if they do decide to commit $199 to buying the GE “Energy Smart” spruce tree from KMart.com, they may be disappointed to find that particular product won’t be available until September.

Source: www.myfoxatlanta.com

Walgreens to Open its first store in Alaska.

Deerfield-based Walgreens to open its first store in Alaska, representing its presence in all 50 states, on Sunday at the ribbon cutting for its new store in Wasilla, Alaska.

The store is located in Wasilla, and Walgreen plans to open two stores in the capital city of Juneau in August. The Deerfield, Ill., company has 6,902 stores around the country, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Rival CVS Caremark had 6,912 retail stores at the end of the first quarter.

“More than 100 years ago our founder, Charles Walgreen Sr., would remind his customers, ‘You’re always welcome at Walgreens,’” Mark Wagner, Walgreens executive vice president of operations and community management, said in a statement. “We’re now extending that welcome across the entire country.”

Wagner will join other Walgreens executives to welcome the Alaska community to the only 24-hour pharmacy in the state. The Wasilla store, along with two Anchorage locations that will open in August, includes products from local vendors, including coffee and moose nuggets to ulus and fishing supplies. All three Walgreens Alaska stores opening this summer will offer drive-thru pharmacies, as well as heated sidewalks, heated parking spaces for people with disabilities and heated aprons around the front doors.

“With an aging population and baby boomers in their 60s, Alaska’s demand for pharmacy services is growing every year,” said Bruce Philipp, Walgreens district manager for Alaska. “We’ll help meet that need with services that aren’t currently offered in the state, such as 24-hour prescription service and drive-thru pharmacies that are especially helpful to the elderly, parents of small children and people who have their pet in the car with them. We even can provide medications for your pets to make caring for them easier, too.”

Many local Mat-Su Valley and Anchorage residents, including Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright and local legislators, will join the community in the grand opening celebration. Walgreens will present contributions totaling $5,000 to area charitable organizations.

“Walgreens mission is to provide quality pharmacy and health and wellness services that are accessible and affordable,” said Wagner. “Our pharmacists help improve the lives of local residents living with diabetes, cancer, heart disease and many other health issues.”

Each Alaska store will employ about 30 to 40 people, including store managers, pharmacists and pharmacy staff, photo specialists, beauty advisers and service clerks.

Food Lion Expanding Hispanic Store Format

After a successful test of a new store format aimed at Hispanic shoppers, Food Lion is expanding the program, “Sabor Latino” (“Latin Flavor”), in three North Carolina markets, according to a published report.

Last august, the Salisbury, N.C.-based grocer launched the test in the Triangle region of North Carolina, with five stores carrying a broader selection of Hispanic items, among them beans, tortillas, spices, in addition to meat and produce. Store employees receive training in the Spanish language and Hispanic culture, and in-store signage and TV ads target Hispanic households.

Food Lion marketing manager Daniel Herrera declined to give specifics but told the News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., that the five stores are “performing extremely well” — so well that Food Lion last week opened 13 Hispanic-focused stores in the Piedmont area, and plans conversions of another 22, including 10 in the Triangle market, with official reopenings scheduled for Aug. 12.

The company will also convert 19 stores in the Charlotte market this summer for a September relaunch. When all of the conversions have been completed, 59 stores, or about 10 percent of Food Lion’s 503 North Carolina stores, will feature the new format, noted the newspaper.

Herrera declined to say how much the store conversions cost or to reveal further expansion plans. Food Lion officials were unavailable for further comment at presstime.

Spartan’s Glen’s Banner Bows Concept Store.

Spartan Stores’ Glen’s Markets banner has opened a new 38,000-square-foot concept store at the southeast corner of US-31 and 12th Street in Filer Township, Mich. The store will serve as the prototype for future Glen’s locations. The store is the first ground-up Glen’s location in seven years, according to Spartan

Featuring even more products and services, the new supermarket offers a full-service pharmacy with a convenient drive-up window, and a new Quick Stop fuel and convenience center featuring the latest technology to enable customers to redeem promotional offers right at the pump.

Boasting an expanded meat department offering select cuts of meat with preparation and cooking tips daily; fresh seafood; more than 600 produce items; and a full-service deli offering a complete selection of salads, premium deli meats, a wide variety of domestic and imported cheeses, and a wide to-go assortment of quick and easy hot lunches and dinners. The store also packs a full selection of Spartan brand products; a fresh floral department offering fresh-cut flower bouquets, potted plants and balloons; and energy-efficient lighting and heating equipment, among other eco-friendly features.

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Spartan Stores’ Glen’s Markets has 34 locations throughout northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, including locations in Munising, Sault Ste. Marie, Traverse City, Petoskey, Cadillac, Cheboygan, West Branch, Gaylord, Midland and Houghton Lake.

source: progressivegrocer.com

Eye Tracking Tool for store interaction between consumers and the shelf.

Most purchase decisions are made at the shelf during just a few critical seconds. The ability for a product to attract shoppers’
visual attention has a strong influence on the choices they make – products that are unseen are often unsold.

What do I get out of eye tracking?

Eye tracking provides unique methods to understand in store interaction between consumers and the shelf. Collect new insights about attention, saliency, interest, gaze path, and impact of brand, packaging and placement. Measure spontaneous reactions and behaviours and avoid results biased by familiarity or the social desirability effect.

Do shoppers see the product on the shelf?

A heat map gives an aggregated view of how several respondents looked at a shelf. By using the AOI tool and the Participant % metric in Tobii Studio you can reveal the percentage of the respondents that look at least once at a specific product.

Eye tracking is a powerful tool for developing, assessing and improving packaging systems:

• raise the find ability level
• foresee the effects of product line extensions
• determine when packaging changes are advisable
• test packaging attributes for belongingness into a specific product category
• benchmark the design against product properties
• understand the decision making process

source: http://www.tobii.com/market_research_usability/research_fields/retail_shopping.aspx

China’s Lianhua Supermarket Will Acquire Hualian Supermarket.

Lianhua Supermarket, a subsidiary of the Bailian Group, has announced that it will acquire a 100% stake in Hualian Supermarket from Bailian Group for CNY492 million.

With the implementation of the acquisition, Hualian experiences major executive changes. According to a report published by the company, Hua Guoping, the former general manager for Bailian’s supermarket business department, has been appointed general manager for the new Lianhua Supermarket, and Liang Wei, the former general manager of Lianhua Supermarket, has been appointed executive deputy general manager.

On the completion of the acquisition, Hualian Supermarket will become a subsidiary of Lianhua Supermarket and the number of Lianhua Supermarket outlets will be increased to 5,268, including 3,184 standard supermarkets.

According to Ma Xinsheng, the chairman of Bailian Group and Lianhua Supermarket, after buying Hualian Supermarket the group will consolidate store business through resource integration and will accelerate expansion to the second and third-tier markets in the Yangtze River Delta with the dual-brand market strategy.

Watsons’ New Concept Store Opens In Beijing.

The health and beauty products retailer Watsons has opened a new concept store at U-town Lifestyle Center in Beijing.

Unlike its traditional stores, Watsons’ new store introduces the department store model. Divided into two sections, the new store has a traditional store layout on the second floor and a 400-square-meter area in which cosmetics products are sold in the same way as in department stores — with an independent sales area for each brand.

David Inglis, the general manager for Watsons North China, told local media that investments in the new concept store are 50% higher that those in a traditional store, but the prices of products will remain the same. The setting up of the concept store is based on the results of a customer survey and the company will continue to make changes in the future to meet the various market demands.

Inglis said the current financial crisis will not affect women’s pursuit of beauty. Over the past year, Watsons’ sales showed double-digit growth. The company will open nine new stores in Beijing and will open another concept store in Harbin, Heilongjiang province. Watsons opened a similar store in Tianjin earlier this year.

Source: ChinaRetailNews.com

Nepstar Chain Buys Beijing Outlets

China Nepstar Chain, the largest drugstore chain in the country, has agreed to buy the five-store Beijing Run Ze Tang drugstore chain. The stores have an average size of 170 sq.m., and will be serviced by the Company’s regional logistics center in Tianjin.

Ian Wade, co-CEO of China Nepstar, said, “This acquisition represents the initial step for China Nepstar to enter into the Beijing market, which we believe to have significant development potential. This is also our first chance to showcase Beijing customers our wide product offerings and advanced store management. We plan to continue to expand in Beijing through gradual ramp-up in new store openings and high quality acquisitions”.

The deal, which gives China Nepstar its first retail presence in Beijing, is expected to be completed in August.

Marks & Spencer launches pick ’n’ mix sweets

Marks & Spencer will take advantage of the demise of Woolworths by launching a pick ‘n’ mix sweets range in 100 shops from September. The retailer has been piloting the confectionery offer in six shops since April, along with “grab-and-go” bags of sweets for £1, which are to be introduced to 355 stores.

M&S confectionery product developer Lucy Clark told the Independent: “When Woolworths went bust I suppose we approached things in a different way and thought it should be a bigger opportunity and not something we wanted to miss out on.

“Pick ‘n’ mix creates a bit of a buzz in-store and I think the fact you are really showing off the sweets evokes nostalgia and takes people back to their childhood.”

Other retailers, including WHSmith, have also introduced pick ‘n’ mix sweets since Woolworths’ collapse.

[Source: www.retail-week.com, By George MacDonald]

Baskin-Robbins Opens Two New Stores In Shanghai

Ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins recently opened two new stores in Shanghai.

These have are the fourth and fifth stores to be opened in Shanghai since Baskin-Robbins established a partnership with Shaanxi Stellerich Food and Restaurant in 2008. According to Shaanxi Stellerich’s plans, the number of Baskin-Robbins stores in Shanghai will be increased to 15 before the end of this year.

In the future, the company plans to open more stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shaanxi, with the aim of making the total number of Baskin-Robbins stores across China reach 1,000 by 2018.

[source: www.chinaretailnews.com]