Marketing Tactics

New York City -- REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.) has opened its first-ever store in Manhattan, in the landmarked Puck Building in SoHo. The 35,000-sq.-ft. space has been carefully restored to honor the brand’s nearly 75-year heritage and the building’s more than century-old history.

All retailers are taking price increases where they can these days, especially in food, but the pace of increases at Walmart has slowed, and its price gap relative to most competitors has widened, according to the most recent pricing survey conducted by Credit Suisse.

Chicago -- More customers shopped the Sunday before Thanksgiving than the days following Black Friday, according to ShopperTrak, a leading provider of retail and mall foot-traffic counting services.

CHICAGO — While retail sales during the Black Friday weekend increased this year, it seems that foot traffic may have dropped, according to a new report by ShopperTrak.

Seattle -- Starbucks Coffee U.K. plans to create thousands of new jobs in the United Kingdom as it steps up its drive-thru program following three years of development and strong customer response to the convenience of Starbucks coffee on-the-go.

The move will see 200 new drive-thru stores opened over the next five years. Combined with openings of conventional stores over the same period, the company expects to create 5,000 new jobs.

As retailers assess what worked and what didn’t in terms of Black Friday promotions and Thanksgiving weekend sales, overall there are a few things that stand out.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Wednesday it has debuted a social networking application, calling it Shopycat.

The app uses Facebook data to recommend gifts to consumers, on the company's Facebook page. It is one of the first products to roll out of @Walmartlabs, a unit of the company charged with developing social-networking and mobile technologies for the retailer.

Target previously acknowledged that the return of layaway at Walmart impacted its early-season toy sales, and now comes another interesting revelation in Target’s November sales release.