Store of the Week: Asda Living
24 May 2013 / By: Bryan Roberts -

Store: Asda Living

Location: Leeds   

The recession in the UK has been more than unkind to several retailers in the non-food arena, and even a global powerhouse like Walmart has not been immune to this downturn. The Asda Living concept was part of the retailer’s ambitions to become the nation’s largest non-food retailer, with what seems retrospectively to have been an alarmingly optimistic medium term target of operating 150 units by 2016. CEO Andy Clarke

Store of the Week: Aldi Nord (France)
16 May 2013 / By: Bryan Roberts -

Store: Aldi Nord

Location: Somewhere in France. Near a big castle. And a garage.    

It has been many, many years since I last had the chance to visit an Aldi Nord. It must have been in Belgium or Luxembourg and I recall it with a thinly veiled shudder of horror. The flickering fluorescent lighting. The pile it badly and sell it cheap merchandising. The fact that at least 90% of the SKUs were derived from pork. The checkout service that was as friendly as being in

Cartwheel Provides a Glimpse Into Target’s Mobile App Strategy
15 May 2013 / By: Amy Koo -

Target boldly planted a flag into the social-mobile space last week with Cartwheel’s launch. And Target should definitely be applauded on its efforts to pursue innovative concepts and also be transparent as it works out the kinks. I was particularly impressed by Target’s willingness to leave the feedback boards visible to anyone who’s

Walmart.com’s Upgrade: Getting Closer to Personalized Commerce
10 May 2013 / By: Robin Sherk, Jahnia Sandford -

Walmart’s President of Global eCommerce, Neil Ashe recently spoke at Barclays 2013 Retail and Consumer Discretionary Conference about their initiatives to deliver a differentiated shopping experience.   One key component is shifting Walmart.com to be a more customer-centric, tailored experience. To do this they added two new tabs to the site, called “Trending Now” and “My Store”.

Trending Now: Encourages shoppers to browse

JCPenney’s Apology, Misses Mark Yet Again
07 May 2013 / By: Jahnia Sandford -

If I were among JCPenney’s (JCP) many disgruntled and alienated customers, I would be somewhat confused by the retailer’s latest attempt to woo me back.  In a few short weeks after firing once highly esteemed CEO Ron Johnson and re-hiring Mike Ullman to the leadership post, the retailer issued an apology in the form of digital and television commercial advertisements, titled “It’s No Secret”, assuring consumers it is now in tune with what they have

Store of the Week: Grand Frais
03 May 2013 / By: Bryan Roberts -

Store: Grand Frais

Location: Honestly can’t remember. Somewhere near Reims I think   

It’s been a while since I’ve been to visit a store and discovered a genuinely innovative take on the concept of grocery retailing, but fortunately such an event occurred last month with my first ever visit to a Grand Frais store. There have been some nice, but limited, moves by Auchan into the gourmet/Whole Foods end of the market through both Les Partisans du Goût

Store of the Week: Tesco
26 Apr 2013 / By: Bryan Roberts -

Store: Tesco

Location: Kensington  

I had long suspected that a combination of my bijou travel budget and sheer bone idleness would eventually combine to see me revisit a previous store of the week, but I hadn’t envisaged that it would happen this quickly. Surprisingly, this is not a result of my epic laziness but rather a result of a retailer’s endeavours to reinvent its instore experience.

The store in"

Store of the Week: Simply Market
05 Apr 2013 / By: Bryan Roberts -

Store: Simply Market

Location: Undisclosed  

I count myself to be incredibly fortunate in professional terms. I was lucky enough to fall into the retail insights industry and, for the last 15 years, have essentially been paid to write about and talk about an industry that I have grown to love. Part of the job means that I am paid to wander around shops doing little more than moving my fat little face about to look at things.

Obviously, there are times when other tasks

Aldi Debuts “Convenience” Concept in the UK
04 Apr 2013 / By: Simon Johnstone -

Aldi officially unveiled its new “convenience” store format in the UK today. The 7,000 square feet store, located on a busy London high street, is smaller than the average Aldi store and its assortment is tailored to capture the growing convenience market.

As well as continuing to cater towards a weekly top up shopping trip, Aldi’s assortment is now looking to capture the lucrative lunch business"""

Communicating Value for Premium Price Goods, Does J. Crew’s crewcuts Pull It off?
03 Apr 2013 / By: Jahnia Sandford -

Source: J. Crew crewcuts advertising from Vogue, April 2013

With off-price, value, and even some mid-range specialty apparel retailers increasingly emphasizing"""

Store of the Week: Poundland
26 Mar 2013 / By: Bryan Roberts -

Store: Poundland

Location: Leeds  

There are a number of retailers that I spend a fair amount of time talking to clients (largely FMCG suppliers) about that would not have merited much airtime a number of years ago. Often, these are local European players that are giving some of the big boys a good kicking (Colruyt and Mercadona) or pure play e-commerce businesses (Ocado and Amazon), but there is a group of retailers in the UK that also seems to have accelerated up the agenda

Fashionably Late, Rite Aid Unveils Its Redesigned Website
19 Mar 2013 / By: Jessica Campbell -

This week Rite Aid unveiled its completely revamped website, featuring a cleaner aesthetic and user experience that is worlds above what it used to be. Instead of a cluttered homepage and confusing navigation, visitors are met with an eye-catching and easy-to-use interface that is on par with Rite Aid’s main competitors, Walgreens and CVS.

Some of the noticeable changes include:

• Simple navigation via drop-down menus
• Widows-like tiles that scroll, highlighting MORE

Store of the Week: Morrisons
14 Mar 2013 / By: Bryan Roberts -

Harrow is not the most thrilling place to live. The largest section of Harrow’s Wikipedia entry is a list of bus routes to take you away from Harrow. Famous people born in Harrow include Peter André, a bloke out of McFly, a well-known quantity surveyor and Pat Butcher out of Eastenders. Clearly, a lot of rich and subsequently famous people were educated at Harrow School, but it’s unlike many of them frequently made the journey down the hill for an afternoon strolling around

Store of the Week: WH Smith
08 Mar 2013 / By: Bryan Roberts -

Store: WH Smith

Location: Westfield, White City  

WH Smith has always been a source of faint frustration to me. Saturday mornings shopping for records included destinations as diverse as Boots, Smiths, Our Price and HMV as well as stalwart independents such as Weasels. WH Smiths was always a disappointing destination, with a frankly lame selection of records and cassettes (wow, never thought I’d type that word again) and a fairly dispiriting atmosphere, perhaps caused

Lidl – It’s Time to Move Beyond Price
07 Mar 2013 / By: Simon Johnstone -

German discounter Lidl recently appointed TBWA\London to handle its GBP21 million UK advertising account. Until now, Lidl has invested the majority of its advertising spend on print work, and it last launched a TV spot that ran on regional channels in 2009, focusing on the freshness of its produce

The move was prompted by Aldi’s award winning “Like brands only cheaper” campaign, which helped the discounter increase sales by 30% in 2011 (Figure 1). Having seen