Saturday January 5, 2013
From merchandising and advertising to real estate and technology, business reporters offer insight into the latest trends and people that define today’s top retailers.
Posts about Retail
Thymes offers pop-up event for customers missing its warehouse sale
Posted by: John Ewoldt Updated: December 21, 2012 - 10:59 AM
After what was described as an outcry from hundreds of disgruntled customers, Thymes corporation has brought back its popular scents and soaps warehouse sale, albeit in a much smaller setting.
Thymes marketing director Jill Gerard said the company is offering a pop-up sale Friday and Saturday as a gesture to customers who were disappointed by the lack of a fall sale.
"We didn’t have enough inventory for a large, grand warehouse sale, so put something together as a last minute holiday surprise," she said.
Typically, the sale is held in October to get rid of excess inventory and older packaging designs, but with less overstock inventory and fewer packaging changes this year, there wasn’t enough merchandise to hold it. The pop-up sale will contain about one-tenth of the merchandise at a typical warehouse event.
The smaller sale includes the usual assortment of current and retired fragrances in soaps, body washes, lotions, reed diffusers, mists, candles and a few surprises at 50 to 75 percent off, said Gerard. At the sale this morning there were lots of Frasier Fir candles, diffusers, and liquid soaps, as well as other popular scents such as Red Cherie, Eucalyptus, Wild Ginger and Azur. Prices range from $1 to $15, including $2 for single bars of soap, $6 for body oil, gel, shampoo, lotion, candle, mist, and diffuser refill. Three wick candles are $8 and diffusers, potpourri, sink sets and travel kits are $15.
The pop-up sale is not a hint that a fall 2013 sale will occur. Companies are still much sharper about inventory control, said Jim McComb, a Minneapolis retail expert. The Twin Cities has lost a number of warehouse sales in recent years, including Thymes, Europa Import, Manhattan Toy and Illume Candles.
The sale will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Thymes headquarters at 629 9th St. SE. in Minneapolis.
Gift card bonuses: Which retailers/restaurants are offering them?
Posted by: John Ewoldt Updated: December 18, 2012 - 3:42 PM
In today's article about the proliferation of gift card bonuses, especially by retailers, I mention a number of businesses currently offering them.
Here are more, but check the merchant's website or location for details. Some offers expire soon but most continue through Dec. 31 or Jan. 31.
Al Vento restaurant
Applebees
Biaggi's
Biella restaurant
Boston Market
Broadway Pizza
California Pizza Kitchen
Chammps Americana
Chopotle
Cozy restaurant
Crave restaurant
Culvers restaurant
Davanni's restaurant
Famous Dave's restaurant
Green Mill restaurant
Hell's Kitchen restaurant
Kowalski's
LeeAnn Chin restaurant
Macaroni Grill
Masu restaurant
P.F Chang's restaurant
Rinata Italian restaurant
Rudolph's restaurant
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
Seven Steakhouse
Smashburger restaurant
Stephanie's boutique
Tony Roma's restaurant
Blue Plate restaurants (Edina Grill, Groveland Tap, Longfellow Grill, Scusi, 3 Squares and more)
Could weak Windows 8 sales spell holiday trouble for Best Buy?
Posted by: Thomas Lee Updated: December 3, 2012 - 4:11 PM
Probably not the start Best Buy had hoped for.
The initial sales numbers for Windows 8 devices are out and they don’t look good. Since Microsoft debuted its latest operating system on Oct. 26, Windows device sales have fallen 21 percent compared to the same period a year ago, according to the NPD Group.
Windows 8 has captured only 58 percent of Windows unit device sales, far less than the 83 percent for Windows 7. NPD says Windows 8 tablet sales have been “non existent,” accounting for less than one percent of all Windows 8 device sales.
“You would like to see some kind of acceleration,” said NPD analyst Stephen Baker. “We didn’t see any impact.”
So why does this matter to Best Buy? The consumer electronics retailer, the country’s largest seller of PCs, typically gets a big sale lift from the release of a next generation Windows operating system. Best Buy especially hoped Windows 8 would give a sizable boost to the key holiday shopping period. At a recent investors conference in New York, top executives noted the retailer carries 45 Windows products that are exclusive to Best Buy, including 28 touch screen devices.
Best Buy spokeswoman Amy Von Walter said Windows 8 is such a unique system that it will take time for consumers to digest it.
"We always knew that Windows 8 was going to be a long term proposition," she said. "Unlike other new devices, Windows 8 will be rolled out over several months."
True enough. But will Windows 8 make a meaningful impact on Best Buy's holiday sales?
Baker said weak initial sales doesn’t necessarily mean a bad holiday season. For one thing, sales of more expensive Windows 8 notebooks with touch screens have been strong, helping Microsoft to establish a foothold in the premium segment normally dominated by Apple.
“The most expensive [Windows 8] products did the best,” Baker said.
In fact, Best Buy said sales of Lenovo's Yoga laptop have been strong, said company spokesman Jeff Haydock.
"Overall, we are pleased with Windows 8," Haydock said. The devices "have performed within our expectations of the launch. We have also seen increased computing traffic to our stores and online."
With its radically designed interface, Windows 8 may also offer Best Buy the chance to do what it normally does best: explain complicated technology to consumers. Von Walter said the company devoted 50,000 hours training Blue Shirts on the new technology.
Nonetheless, Windows 8’s disappointing debut can’t please Best Buy. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with Windows 8, Baker said. It’s just that Windows 8 has so far failed to reverse in any small way the continuing decline in PCs and notebooks, he said, which make up a big chunk of Best Buy overall sales.
“Windows 8 is not the problem,” Baker said. “Computers are the problem.”
Retailers offering free shipping always jumps during the holidays
Posted by: John Ewoldt Updated: December 3, 2012 - 10:52 AM
Consumers are in the free shipping zone and it's not even Free Shipping Day yet. With November spending a little soft at major retailers from Target to Nordstrom, shoppers can probably expect better deals this month, including more offers of free shipping online.
J. Crew, for example, offers free shipping during the year only when buyers spend a ridiculously high amount, $175, but things are more reasonable now. On Monday, buyers could get free shipping and 25 percent off with discount code STYLE25. that's more like it.
More on current offers in a second, but it's time to give credit to retailers that offer free shipping without a lot of conditions most of the time including Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Von Maur, Dell, L.L. Bean, Best Buy, Blue Nile jewelry, Guitar Center, Microsoft, Net-a-Porter, Ugg, Zappos, and Estee Lauder.
Retailers that generally offer free shipping as long as buyers spend $25 to $50 include Amazon, Cabela's, Home Depot, Lowe's, CVS, Walgreens, Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Office Max and Office Depot.
Don't see your favorite retailer offering free shipping yet? Check back until Dec. 17 (Free Shipping Day), when more than 3,000 online retailers will be offering free shipping with guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve in the continental U.S.
For more information about free shipping policies and its new partner, free return shipping, check out the trend in article "Something for nothing: Free shipping."
H&M to open in Calhoun Square on Dec. 14
Posted by: Thomas Lee Updated: November 27, 2012 - 3:24 PMYou probably of heard of the Swedish retailer H&M, or as I like to call it, the IKEA of stylish clothing. But did you know what the letters stand for?
Hennes & Mauritz.
Now you know.
H&M said it will open a store in Calhoun Square in Uptown on Dec. 14. Long a sagging property in a neighborhood that should be a retail gold mine, Calhoun Square over the years has attracted the likes of Uptown Caferia, LA Fitness, and CB2. Throw in Northface and the Apple Store across the street and you have a bit of a retail rennaisance at Hennepin and Lagoon.
H&M should be a nice draw, since it caters to the fashionable 20, 30-somethings that normally populate the area. The chain already operates a store at the Mall of America.
“Consumers in Minneapolis have proven to be extremely loyal to our brand,” Daniel Kulle, U.S. President for H&M, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to expand to Calhoun Square and offer fashion and quality at the best price for the entire family, just in time for the holidays.”
Best Buy offers some info on Black Friday performance
Posted by: Thomas Lee Updated: November 27, 2012 - 12:28 PM
With his investors and financing largely in place, Best Buy founder Richard Schulze wants to wait until after he sees Best Buy’s Black Friday weekend numbers before offering to buy back the company.
So how did Best Buy do? A Deutsche Bank analyst declared Best Buy to be the weekend’s “big winner” after reporting that 86 percent of stores it surveyed said they were “busy.”
That’s hardly scientific. And lots of traffic doesn't always or necessarily translate into real sales and profits, which is what Schulze wants to know.
The company provided a little more color:
1. Driven by exclusives and competitive pricing, three key categories – mobile phones, laptops and e-Readers – all exceeded Best Buy’s full-day hardware projections by 3 p.m. central time Black Friday.
2. The post-paid phone business online this year was 4-times better than what we did last year.
3. We broke records on BestBuy.com last Thursday and Friday. Thanksgiving day was our biggest traffic day online last year and we were anticipating the same this year. Looks like that bore out.
Best Buy also confirmed an earlier tweet from executive vice president Stephen Gillett that bestbuy.com sales on Nov. 20, the start of its early access online event for Reward Zone members, jumped about 400 percent from the same day the previous year.
What the company didn't say was how it did in televisions and desktop computers, two weak categories that form a big chunk of Best Buy sales.
Also a National Retail Federation report found that 37.7 percent of consumers it surveyed during Black Friday weekend said they purchased consumer electronics or computer related accessories, down from 39.4 percent in 2011.
Interestingly enough, the same survey found more people visited an electronics store and more people bought CDs, DVDs, and video games.
So when the numbers all add up, I suspect the status quo will largely remain unchanged for Best Buy: strong growth in online, tablets, smartphones, and e-readers but weak sales in televisions.
My only question would be the impact of Windows 8 on laptops and desktops, something I will try to answer later in December.
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recent posts
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- Best Buy offers $5 per old cell phone, MP3, gaming hardware et al.
- Charity rating services can provide widely divergent ratings
- Got a return? A list of major retailers' return policies
- Macy's, Toys R Us open 24 hours through Sunday for holiday shopping
- Thymes offers pop-up event for customers missing its warehouse sale
- Target slashes prices on its Target + Neiman Marcus collection by 50%
- Gift card bonuses: Which retailers/restaurants are offering them?
- Wishful thinking: Which luxury retailers might come in the Twin Cities?
- Could weak Windows 8 sales spell holiday trouble for Best Buy?
- Retailers offering free shipping always jumps during the holidays
- Need extra cash for the holidays? It's in your older TVs and computers
- H&M to open in Calhoun Square on Dec. 14
- Best Buy offers some info on Black Friday performance
- Target plans big splash for Neiman Marcus collection
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