Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet 4/3/13: Walmart stalls in India; Walgreens sales up
“Wal-Mart’s Path to Power in India Hits Its Limits: The Lawyers” by Megha Bahree at WSJ. “Today, Wal-Mart’s advance on India is barely moving. The company opened just five wholesale stores in the country last year—well below the 22 planned. This year, Wal-Mart plans to open eight locations, a person familiar with the company’s plans said. Part of the reason lies in what people in the industry say is India’s labyrinthine process for developing commercial real estate and operating stores. But one of the biggest reasons has been a compliance crackdown at Wal-Mart.” Read more: https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324373204578373830411211410.html
“Walgreens March Sales Increase 2.3 Percent” “Total front-end sales increased 5.4 percent compared with the same month in fiscal 2012, while comparable store front-end sales increased 4.2 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 1.3 percent while basket size increased 5.5 percent.” Read more: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130403005270/en/Walgreens-March-Sales-Increase-2.3-Percent?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
“Who wins and who loses when big chains tap locally made goods to boost their brands” by Kristen Hilderman at BC Business. “In an attempt to capture the charm and exclusivity synonymous with locally made goods, large chains are trying to differentiate their brands and endear themselves to local communities by stocking items handmade by local artisans—and bumping the retail price points on those items up to four times higher than the wholesale cost.” Read more: https://www.bcbusiness.ca/retail/big-box-stores-go-local
“Retailers Track Employee Thefts in Vast Databases” by Stephanie Clifford & Jessica Silver-Greenberg at NY Times. “The databases, which have tens of thousands of subscribers and are used by major retailers like Target, CVS and Family Dollar, are aimed at combating employee theft, which accounts for a large swath of missing merchandise. The latest figures available, from 2011, put the loss at about 44 percent of missing merchandise, valued at about $15 billion, according to a trade group, the National Retail Federation.” Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/business/retailers-use-databases-to-track-worker-thefts.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
“After store swap, Harris Teeter back at No. 1 in Charlotte area” by Ely Portillo at Charlotte Observer. “Harris Teeter had 23.7 percent of the market, up from 21.1 percent last year, data from sales-tracking firm Chain Store Guide show. Wal-Mart’s overall sales increased, but its share of the market fell slightly, to 20.4 percent. Food Lion stayed in the No. 3 spot, with its share of sales dipping slightly, to 17.4 percent of the total.” Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/04/02/3953670/after-store-swap-harris-teeter.html#storylink=cpy
“Walmart to open 30 new stores in China” at NDTV Profit. “World’s largest retailer Walmart will open 30 new stores in China and revamp its 400 odd other stores in the country investing over $80 million, even as French store Carrefour and British Tesco PLC closed some of their units due to poor returns. Besides opening new stores, Walmart Stores Inc will remodel 50 stores this year, following completion of remodelling at 31 stores last year.” Read more: https://profit.ndtv.com/news/corporates/article-walmart-to-open-30-new-stores-in-china-320343
“eBay’s post-turnaround message: Come on back” by Kevin Kelleher at CNN Money. “Behind that jargon is a subtle but significant shift in how eBay sees itself. What started out as a place for people to auction off the stuff gathering dust in their garages has become a company that offers the online storefront for small, entrepreneurial retailers (eBay.com), the digital infrastructure to help large brick-and-mortar chains to merge online and offline sales (GSI Commerce), and the payment platform to handle the money side (PayPal). It’s less and less an Amazon-like (AMZN) store, and more and more a service for other retailers.” Read more: https://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/04/02/ebays-post-turnaround-message-come-on-back/
“Yes, Marketers, There Is Life After Mommyblogging” by Morra Aarons-Mela. “”We buy stuff too.” That’s the rallying cry I’ve heard from widely read female bloggers over age 49, who are frustrated that a well-established cadre of younger women with young children — known as “mommybloggers” — garner extensive promotional contracts with major brand advertisers, while Boomer-aged women online are often ignored. What marketers seem to be missing is that Boomer women are actually outspending younger generations online — and not on the products that might come to mind when you picture the 50+ set. Boomers averaged $650 spent online vs. Gen X at $581 and Gen Y at $429.” Read more: https://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/04/yes_marketers_there_is_life_af.html?utm_source=Socialflow&utm_medium=Tweet&utm_campaign=Socialflow
“Rihanna shops with civilians at Canadian Walmart and shows her totally normal side” at Mirror. “With their glittering lives, their massive bank balances and their beautiful faces, it’s all too easy to forget that celebrities are in fact normal people. But every so often they do something to remind us that they are just like the rest of us. And Rihanna, 25, did just that this weekend by stopping off at supermarket Walmart in the Canadian town of Kamloops on Sunday.” Read more: https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/rihanna-shops-walmart-canadian-town-1797592
Thanks for reading…
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