Toys“R”Us said yesterday that it will close about one-fifth of its stores in the United States in the coming months, as the toy store chain tries to emerge from one of the largest ever bankruptcies by a specialty retailer. The closure of about 180 U.S. stores, a move that still needs court approval, will begin in early February…
Starbucks announced today that it will use some of the savings from the new U.S. corporate tax cuts to give domestic employees pay raises, company stock and expanded benefits with a combined worth of more than $250 million for more than 150,000 employees. More specifically, Starbucks’ plan will include the following: In April, all eligible U.S. hourly…
My seven-year-old son, Hendrix, has quite the green thumb. Last winter, we started preparing for our upcoming gardening season. Together, we researched what types of fruits and vegetables we wanted to plant, and we plotted it against our garden footprint. Hendrix was diligent in making sure each plant had everything it needed to be healthy…
Each day, the world seems bigger, more diverse and moves much faster. Predicting the future — always a dubious proposition — seems like a fool’s errand in this climate, given the dizzying pace of disruption. But as Peter Drucker once said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” For retailers, that…
As those of us in the retail industry are aware, life can be very busy, and at times very chaotic, for regional and district managers — and that's an understatement. They're responsible for the correct, on-time and accurate execution of operational plans and directives across all stores. This includes overseeing the dozens and dozens of…
Amazon.com on Monday will open Amazon Go, its automated grocery store in Seattle, to the public. The store replaces cashiers with a checkout-free shopping experience made with with what Amazon calls "Just Walk Out" technology that uses computer vision, deep learning algorithms and sensor fusion — many of the same advances being used to develop autonomous…
The holiday season — the busiest, most lucrative time of year for retailers — has passed, but that doesn’t mean the opportunity to drive revenue and garner good will among your customers is over. Even though e-commerce sales continue to grow year-over-year, particularly during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, online retailers are looking for new…
Pop-up shops across the country are seeing an impressive rise in popularity. The increasing shift toward e-commerce has created an abundance of store vacancies, leading to short-term leasing options for eager boutique, startup and online retailers looking to provide an up-close, interactive experience for potential customers. The result is a low-risk, yet high-impact way to…
In episode 126 of Total Retail Talks, Fan Bi, founder and CEO of Blank Label, a retailer of custom menswear, discusses the digital-native brand's decision to open brick-and-mortar stores. Bi discusses the role stores play in customers’ purchase journeys, and why Blank Label is committed to the channel going forward.
It was a very merry holiday season for retailers. This morning, the National Retail Federation (NRF) reported holiday sales (November and December) increased 5.5 percent over the same period in 2016. Total sales reached $691.9 billion as growing wages, stronger employment and higher confidence led consumers to spend more than had been expected. The sales…
