Opinion – Page 316
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OpinionRetail surgery: Maintaining good customer will despite price hikes
Our prices are going to have to go up when VAT returns to 17.5% on January 1. How can I maintain customer goodwill?
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OpinionRetail surgery: Ensuring safety claims made by suppliers are legitimate
We’ve had to recall a few products recently. How can we ensure the safety claims made by our suppliers are legitimate?
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OpinionRetail IT’s New Year spending spree?
Retailers have been making do and mending when it comes to IT systems for the past couple of years. 2010 is likely to be the year when the necessary projects they have been putting off start to see some traction.
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OpinionIs there the stomach for a fresh battle on upward-only rents?
Irish retailers, and particularly the high-profile campaigners on Dublin’s Grafton Street, have been celebrating the country’s ban on upward-only rent reviews. Inevitably it has led to the a debate about whether it’s time for the same step in the UK.
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OpinionWhat’s the point of a door?
Unusually, I was asked to appear on TV last week to talk about shop doors, or rather the lack of them.
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OpinionTesco quietly impresses
Tesco’s trading updates often split the City, and Tuesday’s third-quarter announcement was no exception. Some highlighted that UK like-for-like growth was below expectations, while others reiterated the longer-term benefits of being more than just a UK food retailer.
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OpinionNovember numbers not such a let-down
After the strong sales performances in September and October, November’s weaker sales will add grist to the usual hype that this Christmas will be the worst in ‘x’ many years.
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OpinionCVAs are the lesser evil
Company voluntary arrangements are not ideal but I do believe that they are a much better solution than the alternatives of full administration or the pre-pack, says Blacks Leisure chief executive Neil Gillis
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OpinionSanta and his enterprising sleigh
Preparing for the two most important trading weeks of the year and ensuring you reach expectations.
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OpinionRetail surgery: What are the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading (CPUT) regulations?
We’ve been warned about the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading (CPUT) regulations, but what are they?
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OpinionRetail surgery: The 2010 business rates revaluation
What is the 2010 business rates revaluation and how will the amount we pay be affected?
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OpinionEBay: fashion friend or foe?
EBay’s fixed price business has overtaken the auction part of the business on which it built its foundations. But talk to the luxury sector and eBay is still a dirty word.
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OpinionA hangover from Monday’s online retail madness
This Monday was predicted to be the zenith of the Christmas trading peak online, but the take away from 2009 is that retailers must make their own luck online.
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OpinionCan’t win ’em all
Nokia’s failure to make its Regent Street store work shows that a great location is no guarantee of retail success.
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OpinionThe duck’s nuts
The two-year-old Pets at Home store in New Malden shows how retailers that know their business are comfortable with evolving a format, refining it and constantly looking to improve what’s already there.
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OpinionAsda's happily ever after
Asda’s deal to sell official FIFA merchandise for next year’s World Cup is a marriage made in heaven for the grocer. And one that is likely to have rattled rivals. The partnership shows how lucrative such deals can be for the supermarkets - something they are all trying to cash in on.
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OpinionLocking in shoppers key to grocery war
The UK’s supermarket chains are never less than ultra-competitive, but this year the battle of the grocery giants has gone into overdrive.
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OpinionWhere the future of food lies
Speculating about the future can be a risky occupation, especially where food retailing is concerned. Things change so fast in our world that the revolutionary can quickly seem commonplace.
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OpinionMarc Bolland’s Marks & Spencer food conundrum
I’m an admirer of Marc Bolland. But then I am not unique in that respect because he has quite a supporters club, a club that the Marks & Spencer board has now joined.
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OpinionRetail surgery: Organising emergency keyholding
How should my store managers organise emergency keyholding?