Loyalty Marketing

New York City -- When it comes to coupons, consumers still rely on the Sunday newspaper. According to consumer and media measurement firm Scarborough Research, coupon usage for household items is up 24% since 2006, with Sunday newspaper inserts ranking as the leading (49%) source for coupons, followed by in-store coupons (43%), direct mailings (33%), in-store circulars (26%), and preferred customer/loyalty card (24). And some one-fifth (22%) of consumers are utilizing digital media such as email, text messaging or Internet sites to get their household coupons,

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Family Dollar opened its 7,000th store Thursday, further cementing the dollar-store channel as an area of rapid growth.

The store is located in Memphis, Tenn., and features a green building design and a spacious layout for an optimal shopping experience, the company reported. 

To commemorate the opening of its 7,000th store in Memphis, Family Dollar completed the celebration with the $7,000 donation to the Mid-South Food Bank, along with cans of food donated by members of the local community. 

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Parents will spend more on apparel for this school year versus last year, a new survey from Sears and BlogHer, a network of women social media leaders, revealed. 

ST. LOUIS — Save-A-Lot, the hard-discount, limited-assortment grocery chain owned by Supervalu, on Tuesday dispatched two "brand ambassadors" on the Save-A-Lot Fuel Your Family Road Trip. The "Road Scholars" will make pitstops at Save-A-Lot locations in 10 cities between Aug. 7 and Aug. 28 to help raise awareness that Save-A-Lot can be the go-to source for affordable, high-quality food.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — HSN announced that it has launched a new campaign inviting customers to determine what products are featured in its new specialty More to Like" online store, found at HSN.com/like. Products are determined based on "likes" on the HSN.com, HSN Mobile or HSN's Facebook page.

TAMPA, Fla.— Winn-Dixie Stores announced that beginning Tuesday, guests using the new Winn-Dixie Customer Reward Card (CRC) at any of the grocer’s 95 stores in the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Tallahassee, Gainesville, Fla., Albany and Columbus, Ga. areas, can earn significant fuel discounts at participating Shell stations. The savings are part of Winn-Dixie’s fuelperks! Rewards Program.

SAN MATEO, Calif. — Sam's Club has engaged the services of DemandTec to enhance its eValues program.

Sam's Club said it will use DemandTec's Deal Management service to streamline the collaborative presentation, negotiation, reconciliation, and archiving of member offers and supporting supplier funds for the eValues program.  

DemandTec is working in conjunction with FICO, provider of the eValues program, to integrate Deal Management, streamline the process, and deliver highly targeted, timely offers to members of Sam's Club.  

The nation’s retailers can hope back-to-school shoppers haven’t been paying attention to the steady dose of dire economic news facing the nation the past week, but that’s pretty unlikely considering this is the information age.