Marketing Tactics

New York City -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Panera Bread’s 35 Maryland locations are on EPA's list of top green power purchasers among retailers.
 
The company’s green power purchase of more than 11 million kilowatt hours for its 35 Maryland bakery-cafes is equivalent to avoiding the yearly carbon dioxide emissions of nearly 1,400 passenger vehicles or from more than 800 average American homes’ electricity use.

Dallas -- Alliance Data Systems Corp. said Thursday that it has signed a new long-term agreement to provide private-label credit card services for Christopher & Banks.

Under terms of the agreement, Alliance Data will provide Christopher & Banks and CJ Banks with private-label credit card services, as well as beefed-up loyalty benefits.

WAYNE, N.J. — Toys“R”Us announced that it has established business operations in Poland and plans to open its first store in the country at the end of November. The first Toys“R”Us store in Poland will open in the country’s capital city of Warsaw just in time for the holiday shopping season, with several additional locations slated to open in major cities throughout the country in 2012, the company reported.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears Holdings announced that it is customizing the shopping experience even more for its customers by providing them with  new digital local ads available on searslocalad.com and kmartlocalad.com.  

NEW YORK — Macy’s is positioning itself as a leader in fashion, beauty, home and lifestyle news and trends with launch of mBLOG at macys.com/mblog. According to the company, the website will include tips from Macy's staff as well as experts from such sites as Fashionista.com and FoodRepublic.com. 

NEW YORK — Despite concerns about the economy and rising household expenses, nearly 3-out-of-5 consumers (59%) will put aside economic worries and spend the same or more this holiday season, according to Deloitte’s 26th annual survey of holiday spending intentions and trends. While this is a slight decline from 2010, it represents an eight percentage point increase from 2009.

New York City -- Macy’s has launched a new online destination, called mBLOG, for fashion, beauty, home and lifestyle news and trends at macys.com/mblog.

Each day of the week is dedicated to a specific topic, and embedded e-commerce enables readers to purchase featured merchandise directly from macys.com.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Holdings announced it is now offering digital local ads available on its sites searslocalad.com and kmartlocalad.com. The new ads provide customers with prices and offers from their very own local Sears or Kmart stores, real-time stock checks and access to ads 24 hours a day.

San Jose, Calif. -- Cellfire has expanded its Digital Offer Network by partnering with D’Agostino, Marsh and Harps grocery stores, providing digital coupons to a new geographic set of customers, including Manhattan.

Cellfire coupons will be accessible for all 17 D’Agostino stores in New York, 97 Marsh-affiliated stores in Indiana and Ohio, and 64 Harps stores throughout Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. 

Fort Worth, Texas -- RadioShack Corp. reported Tuesday that profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30 plummeted to $300,000, compared with earnings of $46 million in the year-ago period. The retailer cited the transition from T-Mobile offerings to Verizon Wireless as a major reason for the performance decline, although that was offset somewhat by new mobile service and sales centers in Target stores. The company launched Verizon Wireless in more than 4,400 stores on Sept. 15, as well as ramped up its Target Mobile centers rollout in the same period.