Finance & Capital Management

While 2014 was rocky for a great many retailers, with several thousand store closings across most categories of retail, the first half of 2015 has seen some encouraging signs of a modest resurgence in certain retail sectors and from select brands. The higher numbers of store closings are far from over, and it would not be accurate to refer to 2015 as a total turnaround, but it does seem noteworthy that there are significant categories of retail that have aggressively moved to capitalize on opportunities.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid announced on Wednesday that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Envision Pharmaceutical Services from global private investment firm TPG and other shareholders. The transaction is valued at approximately $2 billion, including approximately $1.8 billion in cash and approximately 27.9 million Rite Aid shares.

New York -- The combination of Royal Ahold and Delhaize Groupe creates a new super-regional chain along the Eastern Seaboard that will serve 50 million customers weekly and generate annual sales of more than $60 billion.

The merger announcement was highly anticipated following months of speculation followed by confirmation of talks between the companies. Now that the merger agreement has been reached, Ahold and Delhaize said they expect the deal to close by mid-2016.

Retailers are losing billions of dollars to shoplifting, employee/vendor theft and administrative error, according to the National Retail Federation.

The recent admission by Mickey Drexler to making “mistakes” while explaining the results of two J.Crew sweaters – one successful, one not – shined a bright light on the importance of each new product decision and the consequences of getting it wrong. In the grand scheme of things, one or two bad decisions do not always make or break a company. But when you string multiple bad decisions together, the stakes are much higher.

Ann Arbor, Mich. - Customer satisfaction with goods and services purchased and consumed in the U.S. suffered a fifth consecutive quarterly decline, sending the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) to its lowest point since 2006. According to the ACSI, the national level of customer satisfaction is down 0.7% to 74.7 on a 100-point scale in the first quarter of 2015 and is off 2.7% since peaking in the fourth quarter 2013.

All good things must come to end — including, after nearly four years, my contributions to this column. “Retail Rap” will soon be forging on without me. This is the first of two final columns I’ll be contributing, and I’ll beg your indulgence if I wax nostalgic at times in this, column number 99, and in my last submission two weeks from now, Retail Rap number 100.

Retailers face a tough battle to generate growth in the face of unprecedented competition from global rivals and digital rivals, but many are overlooking what could be their best opportunity. Improving the way employees interact with customers – whether in stores, online or even via call centers – is a proven route to enhanced sales performance, but too few retailers are focused on doing so.