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Martin & Osa--RIP
This week, American Eagle Outfitters officially pulled the plug on their ambitious Martin & Osa concept. This will mean the closing of 28 locations and the end to yet another experiment by a...
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Kenmore Live Studio—Can Sears Resurrect Its Brand?
We just visited a fascinating experiment from Sears called Kenmore Live Studio. Dubbed a “social media factory”, the basic idea is that this will become a physical space to showcase the Kenmore brand....
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The 40th Anniversary of Earth Day and Greentailing
It’s hard to believe that we are officially at the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. Green, while now blasted into our consciousness, still feels very new. While concern for the environment has been...
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If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Seoul
Sure, we’re showing our age with the outdated pop culture reference above. But, in this time of growing Internationalism, the analogy seemed appropriate after visiting one of the newer shopping centers...
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China—Incredible Complexity, Unlimited Opportunity
We recently had the unique opportunity to attend the grand opening of the 25th store in Shanghai, China for E-mart, our long-time Korean client. E-mart is an extremely successful Korean hypermarket...
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“Two Nations Divided by a Common Language"
Engaging in a prolonged bit of retail therapy in London the past day or two, we were struck by the similarities and differences that still remain between the U.S. and England. Perhaps there’s no...
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Groupon Meets The Gap—The Old and New Combine…
The Groupon on August 19, 2010 represents a potential inflection point of sorts in retailing and the Internet. While we have been watching and marveling over local Chicago area upstart Groupon for the...
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Walgreens fresh.real.now--Can they crack the convenience fresh code?
A few months back, Walgreens announced a planned expansion into the food business. The first evidence of this was the announcement of expanded food offers in so called "food deserts", typical inner...
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Cool Things We See on the Way To See Other Things...
We give a lot of presentations around the world. And, without a doubt, the things that always generate the most interest are the cool little things that often aren't very material to the business....
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Starbucks New Prototype Heads in the Right Direction
Starbucks' renaissance under Howard Schultz's direction has been relatively well documented. And, it has been a fairly significant financial success, from closing a number of underperforming stores...
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Ano"Mall"ies--Three Great Shopping Centers
Santa Monica PlaceOne of the side benefits of the massive winter storm we had a few weeks back was getting "stranded' in Los Angeles and London. While "idle hands may be the devil's tools", at...
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China: Enormous Opportunity, Enormously Difficult
We just finished up a week of meetings and store visits in China. The amount of information we now have on the market could fill a thimble—a few trips hardly qualifies one as an expert. Of course, that...
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Who Moved My Chipotle?
In my hometown of LaGrange, Illinois, something curious has happened. The (and one can only presume based on dozens of visits) fabulously successful Chipotle branch in the heart of our downtown...
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Apple: A Decade of Retail Revolution
On May 19, 2001, the first Apple stores opened (more or less simultaneously) in Tysons Corner, Virginia and the Glendale Galleria. While the stores were eagerly awaited, they were also greeted with...
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Bloomingdales.com--The devil is (apparently lost) in the details
It is wonderful to see how well Macy's Inc. (parent of Bloomingdales) has been doing of late. They are in their second year of comp store increases and they do seem to have the company heading in the...
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Diapers Direct and the Perils of Groupon
“We sincerely apologize about the delay on your product delivery.” These are not the words that you want to see when you open your email, particularly with something as essential as diapers. At the...
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Loyal Until The First Screw-Up
Like many, we received an e-mail from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings this morning concerning the controversy surrounding their sudden price increase (upwards of 60% in many cases, including ours) a few...
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Report from WRC--A Global Perspective on Global Innovation
We had the pleasure of attending the World Retail Congress in Berlin, which was held from September 25-28th of 2011. The World Retail Congress is a gathering of international retail executives. While...
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"Made for All" - our visit to the new Fifth Avenue NYC Uniqlo
Japan’s basic apparel category killer store Uniqlo opened its 89,000 square foot (bigger than a football field!) Fifth Avenue/53rd St. location (second of three planned New York City locations) on...
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JC Penney's Dramatic Transformation Begins
If you pay any attention at all to the retail scene, it would have been hard to miss the news of JCP's announced transformation. It has garnered significant buzz with its new management team led by Ron...
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