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Saving men from $250 embellished jeans
Bethesda-based Discovery Channel’s Mike Rowe is a man after my own heart. Here’s why: “Frankly, I’ve never understood the whole notion of jamming yourself into a dressing room with an armful of new styles to find the ‘perfect look,’” said Rowe. “And from what I’ve seen, I’m not alone. The guys I know aren’t going […]
Xit Poll: so easy a caveman could do it
You know those white security tags stores attached to clothing to prevent theft? I met the guy that invented those in Las Vegas this weekend at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ RECon conference. Larry K. Canipe, of Boca Raton, Fla.-based Cleva Technologies, said he tried retiring a few years ago after 25 years in […]
Post-holiday bargains galore
It’s that time of year again — when the shopping for others is completed and now it’s time to shop for yourself and spend all those gift certificates you got for the holidays. According to the National Retail Federation, more than 5 percent of consumers will buy a holiday gift after Dec. 25 and more […]
High-end retailers giving away thousands of dollars
How desperate are high-end retailers? They’re so hungry for customers this holiday season, they’re willing to literally give away thousands of dollars to shoppers who buy something from their Web site. The promotion is called “Mystery Money” — those who are on stores’ e-mail lists are sent a gift card number, but the dollar amount […]
Fancy products, old school marketing
It’s kind of funny that sometimes the fancier the product, the more old school effective marketing can be. Case in point: according to a Retail Advertising and Marketing Association survey conducted by BIGresearch, 43.7 percent of shoppers say word-of-mouth is the biggest influence in their electronics purchases. “Hearing what other people have to say about […]
Electronics ruling Cyber Monday
While clothes and books were the big attractions for in-store shoppers on Black Friday weekend, Cyber Monday — so far — is all about consumer electronics. I spoke to Graham Jones, vice president, merchant accounts for PriceGrabber.com, midway through the day, and he said online shoppers were already creating a clear trend. GPS devices and […]
More shoppers but spending on Black Friday weekend down
Individual spending during Black Friday weekend (the Friday, Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving) was down 8 percent this year to $343.31, or about $29 less than last year, according to the National Retail Federation. And that’s even though the number of shoppers increased for the three-day kick-start to the holiday shopping season — 195 million […]
Holiday shopping hurdle No. 1: the parking lot
In no particular order some of my parking lot/garage pet peeves are: 1) Patiently waiting for a space only to have someone steal it from you. 2) Being stuck behind a car in a garage that YOU know will only have free spaces on the top floors…yet the person in front of you is delusional […]
Cyber Monday, Schmyber Monday
With Cyber Monday coming up in less than two weeks, my inbox has started filling up with retail predictions, trends, spending forecasts — the works. But one release veered left where everyone else was going right: when “The Myth of Cyber Monday” popped up in my messages list I was immediately intrigued. Compiled by Northern […]
