Another reduction in the retail workforce: this time it is Macy’s announcing a 4% reduction in their workforce, slashing 7,000 jobs. 5,100 of those are at the store level.
“Reducing our workforce is an unfortunate outcome of the current economic environment, and I am frustrated that so many of our people will be unable to move forward with us as we proceed into a very exciting future for Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s,” Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren said in a statement.
The retailer estimates the restructuring efforts will reduce previously planned expenses by about $400 million a year beginning in 2010.
This is the latest in a line of retail layoffs – last week Home Depot, Starbucks, Williams-Sonoma, and Target all announced layoffs. Best Buy has also announced that they will be cutting workforce in their corporate headquarters later this month.
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Thursday
December 4, 2008
ComScore reports that Cyber Monday spending increased 15% over last year. While the November to December period is down 2% from last year, this weekend saw tremendous gains in online sales. Breaking down the data a bit more, ComScore today reports that there was a 22% increase in online shoppers, though a decrease in the average value per transaction. Online shopping sites saw a 33% jump in traffic, with Best Buy seeing a 131% increase in traffic. I hope they were able to reap the benefits of that. More detailed breakdowns available in today’s release from ComScore.
Best Buy recently turned to their retail stores to look for talent to build their new intranet. There seems to be a good focus on breaking down divisions between rank and accelerating communication from the bottom up. Employee feedback is being used by merchants to help make better, and most likely, more timelier decisions. I also really like the fact that they went to the store level to find the skill to build the intranet, essentially allowing the target audience to have a major say in how the site will be built.
Walmart and Coke have released a new commercial called “Joy! Enough to go around“. The commercial pushes the low prices that Walmart has on Coke products; prices so low that it allows the star of the video to throw a holiday party for everyone he knows. It’s a really well crafted video. I love the continuous, one-camera shot of this video. Now, I can’t get the jingle out of my head. Well done, I think.
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Wednesday
December 3, 2008
Chris Churchill, of the Times Union newspaper in Albany, NY, has a good look into the expansion plans of drug stores like Walgreens, CVS, and Rite-Aid in the New York region: Sick economy, healthy business. Despite the downturn in the economy, drug stores have not completely cut out their expansion plans and are still opening new locations at a solid rate.
And despite the recession, the proliferation continues. Other retailers, shaken by falling sales, are limiting expansions — but nearly every planning board agenda, it seems, contains a drugstore proposal.
The retail economy is ill. But drugstores seem healthy.
“We’re not immune from what’s going on in the economy, but we’re better insulated,” said Michael DeAngelis, spokesman for Rhode Island-based CVS Caremark Corp. “People are still getting their prescriptions filled. They’re still getting sick.”
I think there are a lot of people in the industry, myself included, who spend a lot of time looking at the big picture – national plans and trends of retailers – that we overlook the unique impact that every retailer has on the different locales that they serve. I like articles like this that examine the localized plans of retailers.
Also to note and put out there as a disclaimer, that Chris reached out to me for my thoughts on these retailers expansion plans. I am quoted about midway down the first page of the article. Thanks to him for allowing me to share some of my thoughts with him.
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Tuesday
November 18, 2008
comScore has released their October 2008 US retail e-commerce sales estimates. The verdict? Sales were weak – only up 1% over October 2007, which is the softest increase since comScore started tracking US retail e-commerce sales in 2001.
For households making less than $50,000, sales were down 3% for the past three months, compared to the same time period last year. Households with incomes over $100,000 saw a 14% growth in the same time period.
The economy is hitting everyone hard right now and it appears that no retailer, online or live, is immune at this point.
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