Store Systems

Goodlettsville, Tenn. - Dollar General, in partnership with Coupons.com, completed the successful rollout of its new DG Digital Coupons program to its more than 11,300 stores across the 40 states the retailer serves. To use the DG Digital Coupon Program, customers may sign up either online or in stores using a numeric identification number, which is typically their telephone number.

A new digital coupon program was successfully rolled out to Dollar General’s more than 11,300 stores in partnership with Coupons.com, the companies announced.

Seattle – Consumers like the Firefly feature that lets users of the Amazon Fire phone scan objects to obtain information and perform instant purchase on Amazon.com, but not enough to switch from their current phones to Amazon Fire. According to a survey of 53 consumers from UserTesting, 84% chose Firefly as their number one or two favorite feature of Amazon Fire.

Camp Hill, Pa. – Same-store sales increased 4.6% at Rite Aid Corp. in July 2014. Total drugstore sales for the four-week period increased 4.1% to $1.97 billion, compared to $1.9 billion for the same period the prior year.

July front-end same-store sales increased 1.5%. Pharmacy same-store sales increased 6%. Prescription count at comparable stores increased 3.9% from the prior-year period.

Meijer is generating traffic to its stores with weekly promotions and price drops on more than 300 of back-to-school items, which it plans to continue offering into September. In the past few weeks alone, customer traffic has consistently doubled, according to the retailer.

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is warning retailers about a new, nearly indetectable computer virus known as “Backoff” that poses a threat to POS systems. According to an advisory from Homeland Security, most antivirus software cannot recognize Backoff.

GameStopTechnology Institute (GTI), the specialty retailer’s business unit, has entered into strategic partnerships with Shelfbucks, BestFit Mobile and Dynamic Signal to further extend its focus on driving technological innovation and change within its store environments.

GTI was launched by GameStop to pursue an open innovation strategy whereby the company partners with leading organizations and institutions to explore and build best-in-class research and development capabilities.

By Bill Davis, Director, MB&G Consulting

For much of the last year, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers have been mired in a slump. Not only was last holiday season the toughest in several years, the consumer discretionary sector, which includes retail, was the only one of the 10 macro S&P sectors to be in the red for the first half of 2014. As a result, retail is widely perceived to be in a funk.