Store Systems

Yes, but only if you listen — to both of them

In the early days of retail, the store proprietor knew customers by sight. As mostly mom-and-pop businesses, they naturally spent time getting to know their customers, who probably were also neighbors and friends. They knew from experience and immediate feedback what merchandise would or wouldn’t sell. It was the ultimate in customer intimacy.

CVS Pharmacy is bringing its CVS Pharmacy y más to the Los Angeles market.

The retailer first debuted the concept, designed to provide enhanced, personalized service to the local Hispanic community, in June 2015, in Miami, opening 12 stores. Nine stores in the greater Los Angeles market will have the new format.

GameStop CEO Paul Raines expects physical sales to remain key to the company’s revenue as customers continue to visit stores for such hardware as new consoles and virtual reality devices, and also to buy, sell and trade games and hardware, the Dallas Business Journal reported. “Our core physical games are generating cash flow that we can deploy into other retail concepts to generate growth,” Raines said at the chain’s 2016 Investors Day.

Consumers are using their mobile devices to shop in ways that have an impact both in-store and online.

Analysis of daily surveys of recent online buyers by Hayley Silver, VP of Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity, shows that online purchases on a mobile device as a percent of online orders have been growing and maintaining market share since late 2014. However, nearly 12% of all online shoppers still don’t use their mobile device to shop at all.

It was probably inevitable that somebody at some point would challenge the legality of the Oct. 1, 2015 EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) liability shift.

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” That’s a famous quote from the comic strip “Pogo” by cartoonist Walt Kelly. Popular during the 1960s, Kelly was commenting on how humans are often the cause of their own woes in the world. To which I would add retailers could just as easily say, “We have met the enemy, and it is email.”

Canadian supermarket and pharmacy retailer Loblaw Companies intends to expand in areas including real estate, e-commerce, IT and supply chain during 2016.