Data & Analytics

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The economic downturn has been especially tough on the Midwestern region of the United States, but now Meijer is bringing some renewed hope to the area with news it will invest more than $75 million in a major remodel project for stores in Michigan and Ohio, with eight Michigan stores benefiting from this new initiative. The announcement was made by Hank Meijer, co-chairman and CEO of the company.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Hasbro announced that it has signed a strategic development agreement with Jagex Limited to jointly create a new online game based on the Transformers brand. Under the agreement, the two companies are slated to launch the Transformers online game in 2012 in North America, Latin America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

MATTHEWS, N.C. -- Family Dollar today showed why dollar stores are such a hot commodity right now by reporting a comparable-store sales increase of 5.1% for the second quarter ended Feb. 26. Net sales for the quarter increased 8.3% to $2.26 billion from $2.09 billion last year. According to the company warmer weathr earlier in the year as well as strong performance in its consumable and seasonal categories helped drive sales. 

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. -- Sleep Innovations, manufacturer of advanced foam sleep solutions, announced that it has hired Robert West as COO to implement lean manufacturing practices across the enterprise.

ARMONK, N.Y. -- IBM has announced new software and the creation a new consulting practice dedicated to the emerging category of "smarter commerce," which is focused on helping companies swiftly adapt to rising customer demands in today's digitally transformed marketplace.  

Target recently filed its annual report on form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Here’s a look at some interesting facts and figures contained in the document:

• Target employed 355,000 “team members,” last year, a figure that swells to 400,000 during the holidays.

• The company operated 37 distribution centers, including four food distribution centers and maintains 27 international sourcing offices in 18 countries

New York City -- The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index, released Monday, rose in February, driven primarily by the slight improvements in real home prices and initial jobless claims, according to the company.

The Index attempts to track consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending.

Moorseville, N.C. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named Lowe’s winner of the Energy Star Sustained Excellence Award in Retail for the second consecutive year. The 2011 award recognizes Lowe’s long-standing leadership as a retailer of energy-efficient products and will be presented to the company at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on April 12.

Matthews, N.C. -- Family Dollar today showed why dollar stores are such a hot commodity right now by reporting a comparable-store sales increase of 5.1% for the second quarter ended Feb. 26. Net sales for the quarter increased 8.3% to $2.26 billion, from $2.09 billion last year. According to the company warmer weathr earlier in the year as well as strong performance in its consumable and seasonal categories helped drive sales.

By Steve Cole, [email protected]

It doesn’t take much convincing to realize that we are in a Golden Age of the shopper. Retailers are no longer in charge of the information, pushing out what they want, when they want, to influence shoppers and win sales. Instead, shoppers today seek out the information themselves, much of it online, before they ever set foot in a store. In other words, they’re thinking for themselves. The horror!