STORES Magazine - May 2008 - (Page 24)

fullprice/markdown Peapod Does Dietary Diligence PEAPOD has raised the bar when it comes to helping consumers make LL FU ICE sensible nutritional choices. In PR March, the grocery home delivery service introduced its proprietary NutriFilter software, an application that allows shoppers to sift through Peapod’s 8,000-plus SKUs according to ingredients or dietary restrictions. The system then presents shoppers with a list of items most suitable to their nutritional goals. Peapod customers can click on a variety of pre-set programs, including peanut-free, low-fat, Kosher or organic. NutriFilter also gives shoppers the ability to add multiple filters, such as a search for products that are low in both fat and sodium. “These days, almost everyone has some type of dietary restriction, whether it’s lower sodium, lower cholesterol or food allergies,” Elana Margolis, a spokeswoman for Peapod, told the Chicago Daily Herald. “So we created our own software to do this.” Helping shoppers make healthy choices is good business. Already, Peapod is reporting a lift: online usage has increased 30 percent since the filtering software became available. The benefits of this system are many, including convenience, personalization, problem-solving and a keen understanding of what’s important to today’s shopper. & RETAIL HITS MISSES tion of New York) storefront marketing of genetic testing. The paternity test retails for $29.99; another $119 processing fee is required to obtain the results. The kit consists of cotton swabs for collecting cell samples, plastic bags for holding said samples and consent forms. Results are available from Identigene within three to five business days of receipt and can arrive via regular mail, e-mail or a secure website. According to Identigene’s research the test is 99.99 percent accurate, and executives say the results can hold up in court. Still, skeptics can’t help but wonder if a cheek swab and some quick lab results really guarantee full peace of mind. Americans seem to have developed a fascination with DNA, genetic and double-helix evidence, but what does it say about our culture when there is both a need and demand for OTC paternity kits? Doing the Right Thing THE BATTLE between Toshiba’s HD-DVD format L and Sony’s Blu-ray Disc played out on the nationFUL ICE al stage and when the dust settled, Toshiba anPR Who’s the Daddy? MOVE OVER, Maury: There’s a new player when RK- it comes to figuring out “who’s the daddy”? ShopMA N DOW pers across the country can now purchase DNA paternity test kits the same way pregnancy tests are sold: off the shelf at the corner drug store. In late March, Rite Aid began selling Identigene’s DNA Paternity Test Kits in the family-planning aisle — the first nationwide (with the excep24 STORES / MAY 2008 nounced that it would no longer produce HD-DVD players. Consumers — particularly those who had recently purchased the format — felt as if they were caught in the crossfire. Refusing to strand customers with a defunct technology, Best Buy and Circuit City have stepped in as white knights. Best Buy offered a complimentary $50 gift card to those who had purchased HD-DVD players prior to February 23; most customers automatically received the gift card by mail. For those wishing to trade in their players and HD-DVDs, it created bestbuytradein.com, where customers could instantly get an estimate of the value of their player or disks. Circuit City invited shoppers to exchange HD-DVD players for Blu-ray units. According to reports, customers could apply the complete purchase price of the HD-DVD player to the purchase of a Blu-ray model. The fact that both consumer electronics retailers quickly formulated plans to prevent shoppers from feeling as if they’d been left high and dry – and/or adopt another technology — makes good business sense. It also goes a long way toward assuaging the aggravation factor for customers. WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - May 2008

Stores - May 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Contrasting C-Level Compensation Across Segments What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Cover Story: Concepts That Clicked Concept2Watch Kiosks Artificial Intelligence Tech Support Online LPinformation Data Synchronization Human Resources Site Selection POS Selection Communications Biometrics Networking Systems Credit Loeb Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - May 2008

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