Sales & Marketing

Woonsocket, R.I. –- CVS Health Corp. and Rite Aid. Corp., which have both used the near-field communication (NFC) technology that supports Apple Pay, have disabled their NFC payment systems to block Apple Pay from working in their stores. 

 

In announcing its new mobile ordering service, Starbucks referenced a "seismic shift in consumer behavior in which many traditional brick-and-mortar retailers experienced a decline in foot traffic compared with significant growth in online shopping" during the 2013 holiday season. Indeed, consumers are increasingly comfortable with bypassing physical stores and purchasing goods online, especially when facing the prospect of holiday crowds and traffic.  

Mooresville, N.C. -- Lowe's announced that it will enter its first two stores in Manhattan. The home improvement giant has two locations slated to open in the second half of 2015, one at 2008 Broadway at West 68th Street, and a second at 635 6th Avenue at West 19th Street.  

Sears and Amazon.com both recently came under fire for allowing rings decorated with the Nazi swastika symbol to be posted for sale on their third-party seller sites. While both retailers quickly pulled the items down and issued public apologies, they received a large amount of negative publicity and surely damaged their brand image with many offended customers, perhaps to the point of permanently losing some of them.  

Philadelphia -- Century 21 Department Store is opening an approximately 95,000-sq.-ft. anchor store at The Gallery shopping center in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Oct. 28. This will be New York-based Century 21’s first location outside the New York market.   

York, Me. –- Stonewall Kitchen has received an investment from private equity firm Centre Partners. As part of the investment, Stonewall Kitchen will continue to be managed by its existing leadership team with the addition of Centre operating partner John Stiker, who has been named CEO.    

By Jeff Weidauer, Vestcom International There’s been a lot of discussion in recent months about store sizes, in particular the fact that stores are getting smaller, primarily because of the impact of e-commerce. For example, Walmart and Target are both committed to offering smaller format stores.

Washington, D.C. –- Nearly eight in 10 (79%) retailers surveyed will set their standard shipping deadlines for guaranteed Christmas delivery to expire at least a week before the holiday, compared to 74% who said in the 2013 holiday season. In addition, according to Shop.org’s EHoliday survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, approximately one in five (21%) will set those deadlines to expire Dec. 19 or later, compared to more than one-quarter who said so last year (25%).