English theologian and historian Thomas Fuller once (roughly) said “it is always darkest before the dawn.” It is a saying we imagine has been on the minds of the nation’s retailers as they contemplate both the latest physical retail figures out from RetailNext and the...
Consumer outrage has come early this holiday season, all stirred up by the innocuous design of a paper beverage container provided by Starbucks (and, of course, the Internet). That it’s much ado about nothing is a perspective not considered by many involved in the so-called...
BlackBerry was once mobile’s resident unstoppable giant. At its absolute peak, it held an estimated 70 percent of the mobile phone market, it was one of Oprah’s favorite things and it became affectionately known as “The CrackBerry,” a device so seductive users felt saddened to...
A new global phishing scam is targeting roughly 800 million individuals with Apple IDs, according to a report from the Comodo Antispam Labs. The phishing scam is allegedly attempting to steal Apple IDs, passwords and credit card information. What makes this phishing scam appear so credible is the fact...
The last two weeks have capped off what has been a less than spectacular three-month run for Walmart. The third quarter of 2015 opened with the news that Amazon had officially bounced Walmart from the #1 spot as the planet’s biggest retailer (by market cap),...
While retail executives are mostly background players, this week they’ve been oddly front and center. And two execs, in particular, made the rounds on social media and 24-hour cable news. Both probably wish they hadn’t. Taco Bell Corporate Manager Benjamin Golden started the week off...
When it comes to the U.S. economy, fall 2015 by the numbers has been less than totally inspiring. Gross Domestic Product, the sum of all goods and services produced in the U.S., rose at a 1.5 percent annualized rate. That is a very sharp drop...
It’s no surprise that Black Friday has a less-than-stellar reputation among the general public (even those who can’t resist in participating in it), particularly as it has crept into Thanksgiving itself. More unexpected is the fact that many retailers are actively pushing back against it....
For major retail chains, there’s no cinematic slasher as scary as the very real phenomenon of fast fashion. Where did it come from? Are they somehow to blame? One thing’s for sure: not all of them will remain standing when (and if) fast fashion’s reign...
