Events

Framingham, Mass. – Unions representing employees of the U.S. Postal Service are reportedly threatening protests in response to the opening of new Postal Service retail centers in dozens of Staples stores. The unions say that the centers, which are staffed by Staples employees, unfairly replace unionized workers with lower-paid, non-union Staples workers and may lead to expansion of the centers to more Staples stores, affecting union jobs at nearby post offices.

Jelly Belly Candy Company is set to launch a new flavor to its collection: the Draft Beer Jelly Belly jelly bean. Jelly Belly will debut the new flavor at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco and ISM in Cologne, Germany.

The beer flavor has been a popular request by consumers for decades, according to the company.

"This took about three years to perfect," Ambrose Lee, research and development manager for Jelly Belly Candy Company, said. "The recipe includes top secret ingredients, but I can tell you it contains no alcohol."

As always, the NRF Conference & Exposition went by in a blur, but looking back on three jam-packed days of industry insight and networking, a few trends kept coming up again and again. Seamless retail, full mobilization of customers and employees, and item-level RFID tagging stood out as topics of interest among exhibitors and attendees. Following are a few thoughts about each of these trends that will help shape the direction of retail in the year ahead.

Seamless Retailing – Moving Beyond Omni-channel

Now that we know the two teams that are heading to Super Bowl XLVIII Sunday, Feb. 2, Gillette is offering a chance for football fans to score last-minute tickets to the big game via Twitter.

Linebacker Clay Matthews will announce one winner each day via his personal Twitter handle, @ClayMatthews52 between now and Jan. 24.

Big data, the cloud and cognitive systems that learn are transforming the future of retail and IBM chairman, president and CEO Ginni Rometty explained during a stimulating and insightful presentation at the National Retail Federation’s annual convention.

“We’ve clearly entered a world that is mobile first,” Rometty said. “It is easy to say, but hard to do.”

Montreal - Adverse weather conditions as well as power outages in some of Dollarama’s core markets throughout the month of December 2013 resulted in a significant reduction in store traffic and the temporary closure of approximately 80 stores, for periods ranging from a few hours to two consecutive days. The majority of the impacted days occurred during the two weekends leading up to Dec. 25.

The malicious attack on Target which resulted in a massive data breach has spawned a “we’re all in this together” attitude among the nation’s retailers with the National Retail Federation spearheading the charge for common sense consumer protection measures.

Foremost among them is usage of the more secure Chip and PIN technology in credit and debit cards that offers better encryption of data than the magnetic stripe cards that are prevalent in the U.S.

New York -- The National Retail Federation is calling for the use of chip-and-PIN technology in credit and debit cards that. Experts say the technology, standard around the world, is more secure than the magnetic stripe cards that are still widely used throughout the United States.The technology has not been widely adopted in the United States, partly due to its higher cost