Cathy Hotka

Call me jaded, but when the ads are released a week before the game, and are discussed ad nauseum in the Twitterverse, they have near-zero impact on game day. Brands that made this mistake gave viewers an opportunity to visit the kitchen. Kudos to Fiat for keeping theirs a...

There is zero chance that sugar will be regulated. What's next, sin taxes on Crisco?

Okay, I'll be the contrarian. I don't want to interact with anything in the grocery store. I want to get in, find what I want at a reasonable price (that's getting harder) and get out. I'm just not sure that my smartphone is going to help me with that....

A gallon of milk is a gallon of milk. Conventional wisdom says that the customer will travel the shortest distance to get it...but increasingly he/she is willing to travel farther to save more. You can bet that the grocery industry is watching to see how JCP's moves pay off.

We spent $150 each getting our kids ready to work at Starbucks. This issue sounds fairly widespread....

Starbucks has been talking about this for at least ten years. Let's get going!

The visual "noise" in Penney's stores has long distracted from the merchandise. Let's give decorum a chance here.

Cue the threatening music from Jaws!

My colleagues nailed it. Publix creates a delightful shopping experience that many other grocers can only hope to match. Incumbent Carolina grocers are gonna need a bigger boat.

Wait, wait. I have to stop laughing before I can comment!

Several retail companies have tried going CIO-less (Border's comes to mind) and you can see how well THAT worked for them. Any company in the 21st century that doesn't think that IT provides them a competitive advantage is...

I'm voting for a fifth technology -- mobile device management. Once retailers have tools to control versioning and security on mobile devices, and track them adequately, watch the deployment of IOS and Android devices shoot through the roof....