Sales & Marketing

Nutella is setting up shop on Michigan Avenue.   Ferrero, the makers of the popular hazelnut spread, will open their first owned and operated restaurant, Nutella Café, on May 31. The two-level café is located one block from Millennium Park.  

So what’s the bottom line? By rethinking stores and testing new ideas with customers in real-life stores, we are improving customers’ experiences and making it easier than ever for them to get what they need as quickly and easily as possible.  

More hungry customers can now get their Big Macs, fries, beverages and desserts delivered right to their door.   As of Wednesday, May 17, McDonald’s is expanding its delivery service to customers in Los Angeles, Chicago, Columbus and Phoenix. Through its partnership with UberEats, the company’s “McDelivery” program now encompasses up to 1,000 restaurants in the United States.  

Amazon may have its sights set on a new, multi-billion dollar market.   The online giant may be on the cusp of entering the pharmaceutical dispensing business, according to a report by CNBC. The company reportedly has hired a general manager whose role is said to be helping the online retailer explore how to hang a pharmacy shingle.  

German discount grocer Lidl is set to shake up the competition with prices that promise to turn up the heat on its U.S. competitors, who are already engaged in a price war.    Lidl on Wednesday revealed the locations of the first 20 stores it will open this summer in the United States, starting on June 15. (See end of story for listing). The stores — in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia — are the first of up to 100 locations the grocer plans to open across the East Coast by next summer.    

Dick’s Sporting Goods came up short on same-store sales growth in its first quarter amid what the company called “a challenging retail environment.”  

Discount Drug Mart will take over a long-vacant anchor space here at a former Giant Eagle location at The Shoppes of Oakwood Square, something that may give a big boost to the shopping center, reported Columbus Parent. DDM signed a 15-year lease to occupy about 30,000 sq.-ft. of space, the news outlet added.  

The world’s largest home improvement retailer raised its earnings expectations as it announced first quarter sales and earnings gains that beat the Street.   Net earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2017 were $2.0 billion, better than expected, compared with net earnings of $1.8 billion, in the same quarter last year. For the first quarter of fiscal 2017, diluted earnings per share increased 16.0% from the same period in the prior year.