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Quoted – Costco sails on while Walmart’s Super plans stall – Lodi News Sentinel

February 6, 2010 by 1 Comment
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In Lodi, the community has virtually rolled out the red carpet in anticipation of the Costco that could soon be built in the Reynolds Ranch center.

Meanwhile, attempts to construct a Super Walmart on Lower Sacramento Road and Kettleman Lane have been met with bitter resistance for the better part of a decade.

What is the difference?

However, one professor understands that this is a situation where perception and reality are the same thing.

Scott Testa, a marketing professor at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, said the public’s beliefs about the two companies are shaped by how they treat both employees and customers.

“Costco has an image portrayed as not anti-union because it pays its workers better and their health benefits are better,” he said.

He said he isn’t attacking Walmart or hyping Costco, but merely stating the public perception.

“It is what it is,” he said.

http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2010/01/30/news/2_costco-walmart_100130.txt

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Quoted – Wal-Mart’s Event Planner – Portfolio.com

January 26, 2010 by 13 Comments
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Wal-Mart‘s Event Planner

The company that Wal-Mart chose to take over promotions at its Sam’s Club stores, at a cost of about 10,000 jobs, is already almost exclusively devoted to serving the Bentonville, Arkansas retail giant.

Shopper Events LLC already manages events like product demonstrations and tastings at Wal-Mart’s flagship retail stores. According to its website and Linked-In profile, its mission is: “to apply a standard of excellence to the in-store event in order to increase customer demand, align with key branding initiatives and enhance the shopping experience at Wal-Mart.”

Wal-Mart has been looking to cut costs at Sam’s Club, which is the second-largest warehouse club store chain in the nation, to Costco.Scott Testa, a retail expert with Cabrini University, pointed out that Costco already outsources its event planning as well.

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2010/01/26/wal-mart-event-planner/

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Quoted – Late holiday boost a welcome gift for retailers – Houston Chronicle

January 11, 2010 by 12 Comments

Late holiday boost a welcome gift for retailers

Last year was not one to remember for most retailers, but many of them at least had a solid holiday season finish.

A robust December helped boost overall sales for the 2009 holiday season —the months of November and December — to a higher-than- expected 1.8 percent increase over last year, according to figures released Thursday by the International Council of Shopping Centers.

While 1.8 percent may seem modest, it is a great improvement over the 2008 holiday season when sales fell by 5.6 percent.

Also Thursday, many chains released sales results for December, and among the chains showing year-over-year increases were Macy’s, Target, Costco, Sears and Nordstrom.

“Large retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R Us and Amazon helped drive December sales by offering very good discounts,” said Scott Testa, professor of business at Cabrini College near Philadelphia.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6804365.html

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