Babies”R”Us is coming back. WHP Global, which owns the company, yesterday said that it plans to open its first Babies”R”Us flagship store in the U.S. this summer in the American Dream mall in New Jersey. What form do you think “a national rollout of Babies”R”Us” will take and what kind of success might it see?
The biggest U.S. fast food chain is planning some corporate job cuts even as it pursues a nationwide store expansion. Where do you see the biggest opportunities for McDonald’s to grow its business in the U.S. through its “Accelerating the Arches” strategy?
Amazon.com is looking for growth beyond its own platform. The company yesterday said it was making its “Buy with Prime” program, which offers the same easy checkout, free shipping and returns on its platform, available to third-party sellers for use on their own sites. What impact do you expect Buy with Prime to have in the U.S?
Tempe Marketplace and Desert Ridge Marketplace in Phoenix on Jan. 12 will become the first outdoor shopping centers in Arizona to allow shoppers to drink alcohol as they shop. Do you see more pros than cons for retailers in expanding open-container drinking at outdoor shopping centers and downtown districts?
Rite Aid yesterday said that board member Elizabeth “Busy” Burr has been named interim CEO of the company, effective immediately. She replaces Heyward Donigan who has led the drugstore chain since 2019. What does Rite Aid need to do to better to compete against CVS, Walgreens and other rivals?
A new university study finds some retailers may be slower to reduce prices to stimulate sales due to “price frictions,” for example, reluctance to move away from prices that end in 99 cents. Are the pricing frictions cited in the article a major impediment to price optimization?
Microsoft last week was downgraded by UBS as field checks showed slower growth for cloud software providers, including Microsoft’s Azure unit. The downgrade comes as the cloud computing providers reported robust gains in the third quarter but warned of decelerating growth amid macro pressures. Have you seen retailers become more cautious with their cloud investments?
Stitch Fix CEO Elizabeth Spaulding’s exit last week and plans by the company to lay off 20 percent of its workforce mark another troubling sign for the subscription box category. Are Stitch Fix’s challenges mainly due to its own business model and the apparel space or more so a reflection of broader challenges facing subscription services?
“Quiet hiring,” defined as when an organization acquires new skills without actually hiring new full-time employees, may become the next big trend affecting labor just as the “great resignation” and “quiet quitting” did before it? Do you see the “quiet hiring” trend doing more to take advantage of or offer opportunities for existing employees?
Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection within a matter of weeks, according to reports from numerous news outlets. Will the current plan in place under Sue Gove enable Bed Bath & Beyond to avoid falling into bankruptcy?
