If you’re over 40 you probably remember the fiasco that was New Coke, but there are many other examples of companies who launched a new product without really thinking it through (or doing enough market testing.) Nowadays they test the hell out of everything and there’s still the occasional failure, but none will probably ever Read More…
Category: Retail Trends
Retail trends
Dumb Catchphrases That Corporations Need To Stop Using
Below is a list from Cracked.com of 21 catchphrases that businesses have taken up that are just a waste of words. They got a lot of my pet peeves but here’s a few more that bug the heck out of me: “Huddle with your employees”–are we playing football? Let’s just MEET with them. ” I’ll Read More…
25 More Evil Packaging Designs
And here’s the rest of the list. The pizza in #29 is especially egregious. I guess we just have to accept the fact that packaging is created to mislead us and take the time to read the label. Or, just lower your expectations. I recently was given a box of Cracker Jacks for the first Read More…
Emotional Labor?
A video popped up on my Facebook about a Walmart employee who was being disciplined by his store manager for using his phone on the floor AND being disrespectful to the manager by not responding when he was talked to. While the manager, in my opinion, lacked some people skills in the way he handled Read More…
Walmart Revamps Employee Dress Code
Wow, the retail world is turning upside down. First Walmart gives back a lot of their tax break money to the employees in the form of pay increases, and CVS has now done the same thing. Now, Walmart is doing something else to keep and attract new employees–revamping their dress code. Employees are now free Read More…
Some Customers Just Want to Be Left Alone
At the company where I work, like most companies, they place a huge emphasis on greetings and offering help to every customer. While some people appreciate it, more and more customers would rather be left alone, especially younger folks who are tech-savvy. This article from Drug Store News mentions a survey that says a shocking Read More…
Retail Jargon
Having been around retail for a while, I’m amused at the “jargon” that has evolved over the years and much of it is the same no matter which company you work for. A lot of it might have to do with being politically correct, but it’s amazing how differently they now say something so simple. Read More…
Amazon opens its grocery store without a checkout line to the public
So a little over a year ago I blogged about Amazon testing a grocery store where you don’t need cashiers and now they have finished testing with just their employees and are opening it to the general public. So now we’ve got shelf-scanning robots at Walmart, self-driving shopping carts, and floor-cleaning robots to replace janitors Read More…
The CVS Beauty Mark
Hey, CVS is doing something good and it doesn’t appear it’s solely motivated to improve profits. They are telling vendors that they will no longer accept beauty photos (for ads, in-store graphics, etc.) that have been edited with Photoshop or other programs. In other words, they want the model to look as they do in Read More…
Whole Foods Has Started Losing Its Uniqueness
One of the reasons Whole Foods has been a popular store despite their high prices is that they have a lot of unique brands that you can only find there, and it was those specialty brands that separated them from the rest. But now that Amazon has taken them over, it looks like that’s beginning Read More…