A few of the stories I’m reading and wanted to share today:
John Zogby’s got a very insightful look into the political trends of retail consumers and dives behind the numbers to make sense of it all. He looks at presidential election polling numbers, the retailers the customers shop at, and how this relates to the retailers’ branding.
J.Crew’s website has had their share of mistakes and downtime lately. Church of the Customer is talking about the apology e-mail that the retailer sent out to their customers and what this means for the company.
Matt at A New Marketing presents a clean, easily digestable definition of what social media is.
.. and finally - Starbucks is offering a $2 discount on iced beverages in the afternoon when you buy a drink in the morning. I think this is a smart move that should drive repeat business throughout the day. Besides that, I’m selfish and now look forward to saving a little bit of money on my second trip to Starbucks every day.
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Let’s play a game. I’ll name two retailers and you guess which one has more locations in the five boroughs of New York City. Ready?
Starbucks vs. Dunkin’ Donuts
McDonald’s vs. Burger King
Rite Aid vs. CVS
Coach vs. H&M vs. Pinkberry
Best Buy vs. American Apparel
According to a new study from the NYC-based think tank, Center for an Urban Future, the numbers are suprising.
Dunkin Donuts has more locations (341) in the five boroughs than Starbucks (235). Though Starbucks’ has more than double the amount of Manhattan locations (186 vs 78). McDonald’s has 248 locations compared to Burger King’s paltry 92. Rite Aid has 209 locations to CVS’s 108, but not as much as NYC-favorite Duane Reade (with 216 locations). Coach and H&M have as many NYC locations as California upstart Pinkberry (all with 12 locations in the city) and would you believe that American Apparel has more locations than Best Buy (16 vs 9).
The details revealed by the study are interesting, with a thorough breakdown of how many locations each retailer has in each borough. It is worth downloading the PDF and taking a look at their results.
Couple of interesting commentaries on the report from the New York Daily News, the New York Observer, and the New York Post.
Photo above from Flickr user lab2112, used under Creative Commons.
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Entering the weekend, here’s some things that I’m reading tonight:
Starbucks is pulling Jones Soda out of their stores in order to create room for more salads. Interesting.
Kelly Clarkson has cancelled her summer tour and one Consumerist reader has found out that Ticketmaster’s non-refundable fees are, well, non-refunable.
Margaret Brennan at CNBC is talking about how critical the next few days are going to be for retailers. Get rid of the clothing now or else you’re selling it marked down in July.
Finally, Canadian retailer Futureshop will be opening forums on their website next week. Allowing customers to interact with employees, it will be a very interesting website to watch. Will parent company Best Buy follow suit?
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