After an extended absence, this site is being resurrected. Give me a few days, but posts will be starting up soon. There’s a lot of shakeups going on in the retail industry right now and there’s a lot I’d like to comment on. Give me a few days to work out some administrative and development tasks on the back end.
You may have noticed a severe shortage of posts lately. Due to some server issues and business/travel commitments, some posts of mine have not been appearing. I’ll be working on this later today to get the old posts from last week up, but I wanted to say hello and let everyone know that I am still here.
In an effort to learn some new technology and add something new to this website, I have developed a simple application to track and graph retail monthly comp store sales data. Also known as same store sales, this is a measurement of change in sales in stores that have been open for over a year.
Located at http://www.noturnonred.org/charts, the Retail Monthly Comp Sales Charts is a dynamic application using PHP, Ajax, and MySQL. Still in it’s early stages, it will be updated monthly when the new retail numbers are announced. The database currently contains data for approximately 20 retailers that I cover often in this blog, from January 2005 to present. In addition to viewing the data by retailer, you can also compare two retailers over the same time period. With time, I will get additional retailers into the database and extend the range of information available.
I love looking at these numbers and I created this application for me to better spot trends in retailers’ sales.
For example, does American Eagle’s healthy sales this year make it appear that they could be in for a very solid back to school season? It seems that they have had a more positive trend this year, compared to some other similar retailers in the marketplace.
Could this slight uptick that AE is showing be the foundation for a great BTS season?
These are the kinds of things that I like to look at. While I may not always know the reasons for why things are trending one way or another, I still like to look at these numbers. I hope the application I have developed is useful to others, as well.
Again, the URL for the Retail Monthly Comp Sales Charts is http://www.noturnonred.org/charts/. Let me know what you think.
Note: Motley Fool has a very good roundup of what exactly these numbers are and what they mean to retailers and analysts. They explain all of this much better than I can.
You may have noticed that I’ve been MIA for the past few days. Sorry about that. But I am have been working behind the scenes on a few things in this web world.
The first of which is the new design you see around you. For tonight, consider it a live beta. I’ve got a few things I need to tidy up and polish, but it’s out here in the world for now.
The second of the things I’ve been working on.. well, I’m not telling you just yet. You’ll have to check back here in the morning to see that. It’s a new, retail-related project that I’ve been working on. It’s small, but I think it will be entertaining and informative. Check back tomorrow morning for more information.
Like I said, I will be polishing some things up tonight. There’s a few minor sidebar adjustments I have to make and I’ve got to polish up the new contact and about sections. But tomorrow morning I’ll have a lengthier post showing off some of the new tweaks I’ve put in around here.
I’ve found myself with some free time lately to work on at least one of the ideas that has been bouncing around my head. I have created a web application that uses Google Maps to plot new retail construction of some of the larger retailers. It’s now online at Big Box Watch. Launching with over 100 developments that have been proposed or are now under construction.
Please take a look at it and let me know what you think. Pass the link on if you do enjoy it. I think people may enjoy knowing what is being constructed in their neighborhoods.
Also, I have moved all of my portfolio/resume stuff to robotic tom. I am available for hire!
The holidays have come and gone. The six day work weeks are over for me. For two months, I was spending upwards of 65-70 hours a week out of my house, due to work and the associated commute. The chaos that is the holiday season in retail did not leave me much time to blog, as you have seen. But that is all behind us and now the industry looks towards returns, inventories, markdowns, home/white sales, and trying to get back into shape for the new year.
Everyone is getting ready to release their December results this week. After a year that was mostly up for a lot of folks, how is December going to fair? Mild weather across most of the country and high(er) inventory levels has prompted analyists to downgrade several major retailers. I’m really interested to see who the winners and losers are this Holiday season.
Was there a must-have item this year that people clamored for? I didn’t really see anything.
Was it the TMX? How many of those dolls were actually produced and sold nationally? It seemed like more made it to Ebay than to actual store shelves.
Maybe it was the PS3 or the Wii? I don’t know how much electronic retailers like Best Buy will have really benefitted from those systems, due to low supply and the fact that their numbers for FY2005 include the Xbox 360 launch. One of my contacts at Target tells me that every time they got a shipment of a new game system, their camping/outdoor department benefitted the most from the sales of tents, chairs, and other supplies for the people waiting 3+ days outside for the new systems.
Anyway, for the time being I am back and hope to amuse you with some of my thoughts on this crazy industry.
I just got back in from a long weekend in upstate New York, where I was camping. It was very nice and relaxing to get away for a few days. As a member of Generation Y, rarely do I have to opportunity to be so far removed from technology for even a brief moment. But a few days without cell phones, computers, or anything digital (ok ok - except for my iPod), was very nice.
The work/life balance is very important to me. Moments like this - where I get to sit back and enjoy time with my family and friends - are very invigorating.
No retail notes column this week. Since i just got in, I’m catching up and I’ll be back with things tomorrow.
Most major retailers are in the midst of gearing up for Back to School. Summer has just started but Fall is just around the corner. I figured this would be a good time for me to spruce things up around here, and that is why you will notice the site now has a new look. I wanted to change a few things and clean some other items up. Generally, I think I’ve made the site more exciting and readable.
Do you agree?
With the holiday and with working on some backend stuff for the site, I didn’t post at all this week. Regular updates will begin again later today. I’ve got a few posts lined up that I’m sure (well - surely hoping) that you will like.
If you are reading this via RSS, please check out this site and let me know how it looks!
As you may have seen over the past five days, I have been tinkering with more than a few things around this site. I think I have gotten the site to a much better area than it was before and I am very comfortable with the results. I guess you can say that the previous version, launched in January, was some sort of prolonged beta.
I have integrated a few new features into this site, while updating the design and really working with Wordpress to make this jump. I have also taken to using del.icio.us and Technorati tags and you will see more about that in the future.
Peek around. Although my portfolio and photo sections aren’t up yet, I do have my resume up and have updated the about section.
I think I am getting the hang of this web thing again.
No Turn On Red is a blog talking about the retail industry, social media, branding, and how to connect with your customer. Started in 2006, it is written by Tom Sullivan who is a UI Specialist at Media-Hive.
| DJIA | 11288.54 | +73.03 |
| S&p Retail Index | 349.36 | +1.12 |
| Circuit City Strs | 2.31 | -0.01 |
| Office Depot Inc | 10.81 | -0.03 |
| Gap Inc | 16.45 | -0.15 |
| Kroger Co | 29.45 | +0.45 |
| Abercrombie & Fit | 60.73 | -0.68 |
| Tiffany And Co | 40.32 | +0.12 |
| Limited Brands In | 16.90 | +0.20 |
| Walgreen Co | 31.45 | +0.06 |
| Home Depot Inc | 22.54 | +0.02 |
| Bed Bath & Beyond | 28.42 | +0.41 |