Marketing Tactics

Fresh & Easy, the former Tesco-owned grocery format, is testing a dramatically new look at seven-plus stores in the Las Vegas market.

The stores have been remodeled with a more modern feel and layout and a greater emphasis on ready meal solutions, with such features as a “Fresh to Go” hot food bar, a pizza oven, a coffee bar and made-to-order sandwiches. There's also a revamped product selection with lower fixtures and a more abundant selection of fresh food. 

San Francisco — Shopping activity increased slightly from October in November 2014, but slumped compared to November of the previous year. Monthly retail benchmarks from in-store analytics provider Euclid reveal that  traffic lagged significantly throughout the month, with Black Friday also failing to match the previous year as deals were more distributed across time and channels.   

Meijer is responding to a need from food pantries for nutrition education resources by publishing a cookbook that features recipes using ingredients frequently found in food pantries.

The retailer has distributed English and Spanish versions of Simply Cook to its food bank and pantry partners across the Midwest. During the holiday season, food banks see a tremendous increase in demand of free meals per day.

Columbus, Ohio – Big Lots Inc. came up smaller than Wall Street expected with its fiscal performance in the third quarter of fiscal 2014. Net loss shrank to a higher-than-expected $3.44 million from $9.52 million in the same quarter the prior fiscal year.
  Net sales marginally grew to $1.11 billion from $1.1 billion, and same-store sales increased 1.4%. The company expects low-single-digit increases in same-store sales for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2014.
 

Sam’s Club Travel is the name of the warehouse club operator’s new mobile application that offers interesting new functionality and members only savings.

Sam’s has offered travel services for a long time but the new app is a noteworthy development because it is distinct from the existing Sam’s Club app. Sam’s Club said it is the first mass market retailer to offer members a mobile app exclusively dedicated to leisure and business travel needs.

  San Francisco – Although email is at the point it’s often considered a “legacy” technology, a slight majority of consumers still prefer it for holiday communication from retailers. According to a new consumer survey from Salesforce, 53% of respondents said that email is their preferred communication channel during the holidays.  

Challenging times continue for teen retailer Aeropostale, as an 11 percent drop in same-store sales leads the company to report its eighth straight quarterly loss.

The retailer also said it would close 75 stores in the fourth quarter.