Word: retailing
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...doesn’t have to be this way. In January 2004, President Summers called on a variety of talented people from a wide range of Harvard’s schools to form the Allston Life Task Force. Focused on culture, housing, transportation, and retail services, the reports of these subcommittees displayed an impressive depth of thought and consideration. But the Task Force met for only four months and has since ceased to exist, despite their acknowledgement at the time that “many critical decisions depend on further study of particular problems and, most importantly, on coordination with...
...worst performance in 13 years, and experts predict profound misery in the final quarter, usually a boom-time for shops thanks to pre-Christmas gift splurges and post-Christmas bargain-hunting. Market research company Synovate forecasts a drop of 7.3% on shopping trips in December. Says Tim Denison, a retail psychologist and director of Synovate, which has used the same matrix to predict retail trends since 1995: "We haven't seen a figure like that leap out of our Christmas forecasts ever." (See Top 10 Black Friday Gifts...
Nope, it's the specter of a scary, skeletal, credit-crunched holiday season that has Brits collectively behaving like Scrooges, unmoved by the government's newly unveiled 20 billion pound fiscal stimulus package and a cut in value-added tax. And unless retailers persuade consumers that redemption - for individuals, for businesses and for the wider economy - lies in more generous spending, Britain's downturn threatens to be steep indeed. According to the British Retail Consortium, retail sales account for a fifth of the nation's economy, with the sector responsible for some 8% of GDP and employing 11% of Britain...
...SmartWater. But having built its "umbrella" of technology, police enforcement and brand awareness on a not-for-profit basis, the Telford, western England, company is now courting larger firms for tailored approaches that it says will double its 2008 turnover to more than $9 million. While home coding kits retail at only $90, commercial coverage, which comes with a license to badge a company's products and premises with the SmartWater logo, can range from $4,000 up to six figures a year. Big-name clients include insurers Allianz, several high street retailers, and utility giants like Scottish Power...
...store sales plunged 14% in the third quarter. "In their case it might be an overexpansion problem as they got into men's and children's clothing and then made the acquisition of J.Jill, which wasn't smart," says Neil Stern, senior partner at McMillan Doolittle, a Chicago-based retail-consulting firm. That half-billion-dollar acquisition is currently up for sale, but no one is biting. Meanwhile, outdoor-apparel shop Eddie Bauer emerged from bankruptcy in June 2005 with a $450 million bank loan, which left it highly leveraged and low on cash. "While their same-store sales...