Sales & Marketing

Walmart and Target were both winners this week as Target announced a deal with Neiman Marcus that makes the distinction between it and Walmart even sharper.

East Cleveland, Ohio -- Walgreens recently upgraded its general lighting across 80% of the chain's nationwide locations, through a partnership with GE Lighting.

As part of its new lighting initiative, Walgreens said it has changed its lights to the new GE F25 T8 linear fluorescent tubes, which is designed to save thousands of dollars as it impacts more than 4.3 million lights at nearly 7,000 stores. Additionally, the new linear fluorescent fixtures from GE Lighting are expected to increase energy efficiency by 9% and extend re-lamp cycles by 10%.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Heineken USA announced that it has brought Indio, a dark beer that has been sold in Mexico since 1893 to the United States. The beer is now available in 6-pack and 12-packs at locations throughout Chicago,Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.

Yikes! After a monstrous earnings miss, Supervalu suspended its earnings guidance and dividend and said it was exploring strategic alternatives.

Target has come up with some clever buzz-building brand activities over the years and a new initiative underway in Seattle is no exception.

New York -- Standard & Poor's Ratings Services is further lowering its credit rating on J.C. Penney Co., attributing the move to a continuing weak performance.

J.C. Penney’s corporate credit rating has been lowered to "B+" from "BB-." The junk rating is four notches below investment grade. The move marks the second downgrade from S&P since mid-May.
 

New York -- Marvin S. Traub, Bloomingdale’s president and CEO for 22 years, died Wednesday at age 87. Traub had suffered from bladder cancer.

Traub is credited with turning the Bloomingdale’s Manhattan flagship – at Lexington and 59th – into a showcase. He started as a merchandising manager in 1962, and was named president in 1969.

NEW YORK — The popular British fashion brand Topshop, which has flagship stores in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas, is making its mass retail debut in the United States at Nordstrom this fall.

Beginning Sept. 10, 14 Nordstrom stores will carry an assortment of Topshop and Topman merchandiese. Items will also be available online, making it the only large U.S. retailer to do so.