Marketing Tactics

It’s one down and more than 11,000 to go as Dollar General has opened its first ever fueling station at a store in Hanceville, Ala.

The pilot project is part of an agreement with Mansfield Oil, a provider of fuel supply, distribution, delivery, and dispensing solutions. The store in question is one of Dollar General’s larger format Market stores which include expanded food and consumables. Dollar General operates more than 11,000 stores nationwide, but slightly more than 100 units are in the Market format.

Driving sales with an established brand at multiple retail accounts is hard enough for the biggest consumer packaged goods companies. Creating a new brand in a nonexistent category is even more daunting as a pair of entrepreneurial family members discovered a decade ago when they launched the Granite Gold line of stone-care products. This is their story.

Two stone guys with no experience in consumer package goods or retail set out to conquer the world by trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

New York -- Upscale footwear brand Stuart Weitzman is partnering with the online shopping destination, Gilt, to launch a digital pop-up shop, created exclusively by Gilt.

The online pop-up will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Stuart Weitzman’s iconic, over-the-knee 5050 boot and feature a 20-piece Anniversary Collection, which includes ten limited-edition styles.

New York — Ricky’s Halloween, backed by Ricky’s NYC, a 23-year-old brand of ultra-hip beauty shops, has leased new pop-up locations for its Halloween retail stores in the Financial District and West Chelsea. The Winick Realty Group represented Ricky’s in those transactions.

Those two leases bring Ricky’s Halloween pop-up locations — which also merchandise products from its year-round stores — to 17.

New York -- With a late Thanksgiving and the shortest holiday shopping season in years, consumers report they are starting their holiday shopping sooner and spending more this year, according to the latest American Express Spending & Saving Tracker research. The report is more optimistic than some other holiday forecasts.

Target is taking a page from Apple and remodeling its electronics department to echo the minimalist format seen in Apple and even Best Buy stores, according to a report in the StarTribune.

 “It’s more a minimalist approach with space for consumers to touch and test the merchandise,” said Chris Christopher, director of consumer electronics at IHS Global Insight in Massachusetts, in the report.

Chicago -- Although the first government shutdown in 17 years lasted 16 days, it left an impact on more than just the workers sent home after lawmakers failed to arrive at a deal to end the spending and debt stalemate. Total retail store shopper traffic during the week of Sept. 29 to Oct. 5 decreased 7.5% compared to the same time period last year, according to ShopperTrak, a leading provider of shopper analytics.

The Washington, D.C. area saw an even greater decrease, with an 11.4% decline in year-over-year shopper traffic the week of Oct. 6-12.

J.C. Penney has joined the list of retail chains that plan to open their stores on Thanksgiving night to kick off the holiday shopping season. 

Penney will open most of its 1,100 stores at 8 p.m., the same as Macy's. Last year, Penney opened its stores at 6 a.m. on Black Friday, while rivals Macy’s and Kohl’s opened their doors at midnight.