Cathy Hotka

I manage a lot of dinner discussions with retailers around the country, and the best way to stop a conversation in its tracks is to ask "can you deliver on that sophisticated strategy while using $8 per hour employees who'll stay with you for only three months?"

Kenneth Leung is...

Some retailers have complex and comprehensive security programs in place. The retailers who punted, thinking that nothing will happen to them, found a different reality entirely. The industry needs to have an open and honest discussion about the risks, and better ways to gain executive sponsorship.

I live in a neighborhood that has Neiman Marcus, Saks, Dior, Jimmy Choo, Tiffany, and a number of other upscale retailers. But the recession made bargain shopping chic again, so plenty of my neighbors shop in our Loehmann's and TJMaxx. Don't underestimate the demand for great merchandise at good...

Cisco and I recently hosted a dinner discussion in Chicago to discuss social and mobile. Participants noted multiple benefits from associates' use of social technologies in the store, including localization and better communications with customers. Everyone's still finding their way, but the interest level is significant.

Well, duh. If you're going to eliminate EDLP and go to promotions, you have to jack up the price of the item first. Shoppers shouldn't be surprised by this.

I think I might have been the only person who thought that shiny stores and exciting, underpriced merchandise were a great...

Smaller retailers always have an edge if they can establish personal relationships with shoppers. Safeway, for instance, has had great luck in keeping the same clerks in the store for years. Everyone knows everyone. The company may be a huge and impersonal chain, but the local employees on the...

Great idea! The customers who purchase cosmetics—younger women, working women, moms—are the same people who are responsible for setting up households, being Santa, and purchasing groceries each week. Target has the opportunity here to provide a new level of customer insight and personalization. Nice move.

I'll never forget the day I called Lands' End and said "I need something you carry that doesn't appear in the catalog," and the operator at the other end found it and sold it to me.

Sears made a great move by leaving Lands' End alone. Now, if only they...

Target has chosen shrewd, experienced and able partners. Because the shopping experience is changing so dramatically, they should take cues from anywhere and talk to smart people everywhere. Can't wait to see what they come up with.

Wait...you can feel the bag, but you have to order it online?

Nobody's yet figured out a sustainable model for this kind of showroom-only model. There will certainly be learnings that come out of this, but don't expect this kind of thing to become the norm any time soon.