Cathy Hotka

Genius. The people running Macy's today have all the right moves. The folks running other companies might want to copy everything they do NOW, because it's going to be hard to catch up later.

Kenneth Cole started this trend years ago and it worked for him, and it will work today. Park a fashion truck in a crowded downtown area and watch new customers flood out of office buildings. I love it.

I'd like to know which non-commissioned retail sales force Penney's is trying to emulate. Just where is the outstanding customer service, without commissions, in this industry?

This is a plus for Bed Bath ... but is it a plus for World Market? As a lucky customer of a World Market that's only three blocks from my home, I hope that World Market's new parent will keep its format and selection intact.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Millennials in the workplace. They're used to having new devices; when they enter the work world and are issued an older PC, what will their reaction be?

It seems to me that the opportunity here is to knock American Apparel off their perch while taking Athleta head on. If stores are sufficiently appealing, they may have a shot.

Given high retail associate turnover, there's no question but that tablets could help deliver a more satisfying shopping experience. But those same associates will have to be taught to maintain eye contact with shoppers instead of staring at the screen!

Sure, it's cool, but my first thought was "what an operations nightmare." Unless the display is generated by a tag on the garment, the hanger may reflect incorrect information because hangers get swapped by shoppers trying items on. This could work in small shops but not in larger formats....

Consumers will want to know products are safe before they use them, and plenty of people will remember the controversy over genetically modified corn, which hit the market before testing. Some additional scrutiny is a good thing.

It might be that the love of food is a subtext under all the FMI sessions.

I take people out to dinner for a living. People's sophistication about food is at its highest level ever. The innovative grocers who concentrate on the edges of the store are going to win...