Bill Emerson

It's a bit misleading to equate AE's decision to get out of the kids business strictly based on going into 4-wall. Gap Kids had/has a great 4-wall kids business. In the end, it's all about the product and the store's organization.

In the abstract, this makes sense. After all, most retailers do not pay commission. In the categories mentioned, however, a successful sale requires a lot of time, attention, and personal interaction. This means a high level of commitment to the customer and not just "the rest rooms are over...

Amazon is having a similar impact on retailing as Walmart did when they entered the scene decades ago. They are committed, aggressive, and execute brilliantly. As a friend says, they are eating the retail world. This particular category also offers something they are not used to -- high margins...

Consumers are definitely gaining more influence -- for those retailers that actually listen to them and respond. Social media enables retailers to actually have a dialogue, vs a monologue, with the customers. Since understanding what customers want and then delivering it is the critical key to success, this is...

Downtown Boston has a long history of hostility towards big box retailers. Once past the construction phase (no small task), Wegmans will have to face fitting 130k into 70k. IMHO, they would be much better served in editing departments than trying to downscale every department to fit into the...

All good, common-sense points. The one thing missing here is a specific target of "what is the objective and how are we to measure progress towards that objective?" Like all technology investments, it's easy to spend a great deal of working capital and then look back later and ask...

Customer loyalty has always been the key factor to any retailer's success. Not long ago, the department stores maintained loyalty through their owned credit card operations. Then along came bank cards.

Gaming offers an interesting, new way to build loyalty. It certainly speaks to the plugged-in lifestyle of the...

Older retailers are still living in an outdated model, namely: retailers set trends, trends are national, and trends last for a full season. None of this is true any more. This is the vacuum that the fast retailers have filled so successfully, leaving the older retailers to fight it...

Technology services? Sure, why not? How about stem cell research or maybe an airline? The only puzzle is why this financier continues to hold on to Sears. He obviously has no aptitude or interest in retail. One might surmise that he's just using the real estate to collateralize whatever...

It's difficult to get a good read on what actually happened with so few details and information presented through the somewhat biased prism of the New York Times.

Bribery and Baksheesh are a fundamental cost of doing business in other countries. Like many things, however, many in America want...