Warren Thayer

This will work in some urban neighborhoods, and not in others. Seeing Kenneth Cole's name mentioned, can't resist a semi-related story. I knew him 30 years ago, and when he left his family's shoe business to start up on his own, the footwear trade show at the New York...

I agree with Al: bad move, and for the reasons he cited. Some associates will now be "motivated" to hide in the back room or goof off more now. And as for the pricing structure, it's not nearly as simple as the press releases make it sound. We got...

Good grief. Herb is right, and Dan is right that Herb is right. My doctor now uses a little computer to access all my information. Most of his time is spent typing what I tell him, inserting it into the right spots of the database or whatever, and looking...

I agree with the thread of comments thus far. So do Elvis, Marilyn, Steve McQueen, Bob Marley....

Well, this is a hoot. Yesterday, on the way to get my wife a certificate for a pedicure for Mother's Day, I passed a jewelry store and almost bought her more bling. Over the years, that's always been nice, but somehow seemed boring this year, at least to me....

All these moves make excellent pragmatic business sense, including and perhaps especially tobacco. From what I understand in talking to independent supermarkets, dollar stores get "class of trade" preference in pricing, which helps them. All channels will be nicked as dollar stores continue their way, but I see C-stores...

It'll be SKU rationalization, and probably labor. To my mind, Wegmans is practically a different class of trade from "supermarkets." They should be very well received. I agree that choosing what to cut will be difficult, but Wegmans' instincts have always been terrific. Call it a bias of someone...

For the reasons already mentioned, I don't see this as likely. Maybe a division of Safeway, but not the whole enchilada. Personally, I've noticed a fair amount of nonsensical buzz about Safeway lately from several securities analysts who should know better, and I've wondered about their motivation.

I doubt the penny would be missed by many after a year or two. This reminds me of the fuss over Y2K and the supposed worldwide computer meltdown. BTW, we started making half cents in 1793, and stopped in 1857. Perhaps their demise somehow led to the Civil War?...

I agree with the gist of the comments posted so far. The fact that half the respondents (as I post) see catalog use staying roughly the same or increasing does not surprise me. As RetailWire's resident Luddite, I've seen lots of things that were supposed to "take the world...