STORES Magazine - October 2008 - (Page 24)

fullprice/markdown Reality Bites MINNEAPOLIS is known for fresh RK fish and fresh produce, but according MA N DOW to a recent survey conducted by St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Catalina Marketing, the city and surrounding areas harbor a dirty little secret. Shoppers in the Twin Cities metro area top the list of U.S. junk food buyers. Consumers there spend 11.5 percent of their collective grocery purchases on unhealthy foods ranging from cake and brownie mixes to frozen pizza, chips, ice cream and bacon. Nibbling at their heels are consumers in Richmond, Va., and Indianapolis/Carmel, Ind.; shoppers in Providence, R.I., purchased less junk food than any of the 50 metropolitan areas included in the survey. The survey found that the average U.S. shopping cart contains 8.5 percent junk food. & RETAIL HITS MISSES Optimal Shopping Health IF YOU’VE ever visited Harrods in London you L know how many hours – even days – it can take FUL ICE for a shopping aficionado to traverse the store. PR ganizations closer to home. British grocer Waitrose is giving shoppers the chance to give to local charities in a new program dubbed Community Matters. The program, launched just a few months ago, assigns each store £1,000 (about $1,800) per month to donate among three local organizations. Customers nominate the organizations to benefit – including community groups, schools or local divisions of national charities. Customers are offered a token each time they shop. They can insert the token into the acrylic tube designated for the charity they select. At the end of the month, the tokens inside each tube are weighed and the charities receive a corresponding portion of cash. Whole Foods has a similar program in place to reward shoppers who use their own bags. They’re “rewarded” with a wooden nickel to deposit in a box designated to a local charity. Who’s next? The newly opened Farmacia Urban Healing center located in the basement of the store appeals to shoppers who need a respite after pouring over racks and racks of merchandise. The full-service European style pharmacy is stocked with OTC medications and high-end skin and hair care products, including some exclusives. There’s a doctor on staff, consulting services for homeopathic remedies, acupuncture and nutrition counseling. Always in fashion, the Harrods shop also includes oxygen and juice bars. Nordstrom operates spas in some stores; other department stores lease space to hair salons. The idea of catering to today’s stressed out shoppers is one worth stealing — before your competition beats you to the punch. Toxic Brew THERE’S a conRK troversy brewing MA N in Mexico over a DOW It Takes a Community DONATING to national organizations is an imporL tant part of charitable giving. Still, some times FUL ICE people are torn between their desire to give to PR these charities and the tug they feel toward or- new beer named after the “patron saint” of drug traffickers. Malverde Beer is named for Jesus Malverde, a Robin Hood-like figure who was hanged nearly a century ago and is revered by those in the illegal drug trade. Some drug smugglers pray to him, and many of their “mules” carry his picture. The beer’s maker, a small brewery in Guadalajara, insists the beer is not meant to glamorize the drug trade (the company is donating 1 percent of its profits to a chapel dedicated to Malverde). The Mexican government is locked in a bloody battle against drug gangs and considers this brew to be part of the country’s “narco culture.” Walmart Mexico has refused to stock the beer; hopefully others will follow its lead. WWW.STORES.ORG 24 STORES / OCTOBER 2008 http://WWW.STORES.ORG

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

STORES Magazine - October 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Force of a Different Collar What Shoppers Think Bagging the Competition 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Favorite 50 Sticky Strategies for Retention Concept2Watch Kiosks Online Business Intelligence RFID NRFtech Wrap-up E-Commerce Credit Warehouse Systems Logistics Selling Tools Supply Chain LOEB Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - October 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.