Sales & Marketing

Dayton, Ohio -- Parmida Home said Tuesday it will open its fifth retail store in the Greene shopping center, located in Dayton, Ohio, on April 1.

“We are very excited to grow in the Dayton area,” said Parmida marketing director Siotha Vest.

MONTVALE, N.J. -- A&P announced that it has filed a motion seeking approval to close 32 stores in six states as the company continues to fully implement its comprehensive financial and operational restructuring. The store closures are expected to be completed in the company’s fiscal first quarter, subject to court approval.

Berlin, N.J. -- A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts said Tuesday it is considering a potential sale of the company.

The arts-and-crafts retailer revealed that its board is looking at strategic options to boost shareholder value, which may also include corporate financing or raising capital. It said there has been third-party "expressions of interest," but that it won't discuss any developments unless its board approves a specific transaction.

ST. LOUIS — Aisle411, a mobile retail navigation service that helps shoppers locate products down to the shelf location, on Tuesday announced its service now is live in more than 1,000 stores with the addition of three markets — Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Other markets identified for expansion included Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Houston, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Sacramento, Calif., Seattle and Washington, D.C.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The American Customer Satisfaction Index has dropped just 0.1% from the previous quarter to 75.9 on the ACSI's 100-point scale, indicating that customers satisfaction remains strong, the ACSI reported.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart has named Cindy Davis EVP of its global consumer insights business unit created two weeks ago as part of a larger corporate restructuring.

Davis, who joined Walmart in 2007 and previously served as EVP membership and marketing for Sam’s Club will continue to report to Sam’s Club president and CEO Brian Cornell, although she will be responsible for understanding broad consumer trends world wide and to create advanced analytical tools to support the business.

Target took it to some leading brands in its weekly ad on Sunday where it devoted a full page to a side-by-side price comparison between its Up&Up brand and leaders of their respective categories such as Clorox, Similac, Reynolds Wrap, Tums, Jergens and Nyquil. It was the second week in a row Target has promoted Up&Up in its weekly circular except last week, the brand was featured on the cover with a reminder that Up&Up offers “unbeatable prices on over 900 quality products every day.”

In the price comparison from this past week, featured brands included:

By Akhilesh Srivastava, [email protected]
According to NRF Retail Horizons Benchmark Report, two key initiatives to keep retailers competitive in 2010 were optimization and streamlining of their internal operations to reduce operating costs and improving their customer centricity to win the share of wallet.