The Grocery Business Is Going To Get Much More Competitive
During the pandemic, home delivery and customer pickup of groceries exploded. Those changes are now significantly impacting the future of the grocery business, making the business harder and more competitive than before. There are two reasons why this is occurring: one is in home delivery and the other is in-store. Home Delivery With the realization […]
Why retail bankruptcies have stopped dead — for now
To appreciate the turnaround the entire retail industry has made over the past year, consider the months of July and August 2021 compared to July and August 2020. In 2020, over those two months, 11 major retailers filed for bankruptcy. Over the course of just seven days last July, five retailers went bankrupt (The Paper […]
This Amazon Fresh Store Is Only Blocks From A Whole Foods. Why?
The two grocery properties are in the same Washington, D.C., neighborhood. But the stores are on such different trajectories it may not matter. On a July day in Washington, D.C., the latest Amazon Fresh store opened. The checkout-free grocery concept allows customers to enter through a QR code tied to their Amazon app, place items […]
The US has 8.4 million unemployed and 10 million job openings – Why?
A mystery sits at the heart of the economic recovery: There are 10 million job openings, yet more than 8.4 million unemployed are still actively looking for work. The job market looks, in some ways, like a boom-time situation. Business owners complain they can’t find enough workers, pay is rising rapidly, and customers are greeted […]
Wegmans in Manhattan: the State of Retail 2021
The news this week that Wegmans will open a new store in what was the Kmart on Astor Place in Manhattan says so many things about the state of retailing circa 2021 that it’s hard to even figure out where to start. But start first with the facts: Wegmans Food Markets, the upscale supermarket chain […]
Dick’s Is Testing 5 Store Concepts. Here’s Why.
Store revamps are also in progress, and the sporting goods specialist Dick’s is expanding its private label reach as it looks to maintain a winning position. Since June of last year, Dick’s has debuted four new store concepts, announced the launch timeframe for a fifth, set up a new men’s private label, signed brand ambassadors […]
7 Reasons To Be Extremely Optimistic About Retail
There are ample reasons to be optimistic about where the economy is headed, if you look past the near-term wobbliness and pay close attention to the data that have been trickling in lately. It’s reasonable to think that by the 2021 holiday season, the long-predicted Biden boom will really be roaring, and the economic pain […]
5 Signs That Retail Will Be OK
The industry took a beating last year. Challenges remain, but here are a few indications of retailers’ strength. Last year was a challenge like no other for the retail industry. COVID-19 upended people’s existence worldwide, threatening human life and undermining the global economy. Job and wage losses took a toll. Even those able to stay […]
Revenge Shopping: What’s In Store For The U.S.
No less an oracle than Anna Wintour herself has declared that luxury goods sales and travel will become hot commodities once again due to the pent-up demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. “’People have been locked up for a long time and they are going to want to spend. They are going to want […]
Tractor Supply is Winning Over Rural America
Thanks to several factors in and out of its control, Tractor Supply last week reported that first quarter net sales rose 42.5% to $2.79 billion. E-commerce sales “experienced triple-digit percentage growth for the fourth consecutive quarter,” according to a company press release. Store comps rose 38.6% (well above the 4.3% increase in the year-ago quarter), […]