All Opinion articles – Page 341
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Opinion
Best Buy can’t walk on water
John Browett and Hugh Harvey could have been forgiven a little Schadenfreude last week.
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Opinion
M&S versus Debenhams is only round one
Marks & Spencer has gone head to head with Debenhams in what will be round one of the tussle for shoppers' spending in the run-up to Christmas. But will short, sharp and noisy Sales ultimately really benefit retailers?
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Opinion
It’s bad but it will get worse
The bold 1.5 percentage point interest rate cut was supposed to help restore consumer confidence.
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Opinion
Can retail get to grips with IT jargon?
From tulip dresses to kitten heels, retail is awash with industry-specific terms, so does it matter if the IT department throws in a few more for good measure?
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Opinion
Conference season is not quite the party it was
Conference season is the perfect litmus test for the state of the property industry. So if last week’s British Council of Shopping Centres Conference is anything to go by, the next year will be one of the utmost caution.
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Opinion
National Geographic - the end of an era for Regent Street
The opening of the National Geographic store on Regent Street is a landmark for several reasons.
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Opinion
Asda is hitting the mark
With a 40-year heritage in offering value prices, Asda is well positioned to benefit from the economic slowdown. But as its figures show yesterday, the grocer is not just benefiting, it is stealing a march on its competitors.
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OpinionMultichannel needn’t mean every channel
Ordering by phone is a habit. Amazon killed it for books and CDs. Should clothing and general merchandise be any different?
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Opinion
All hail the new Product Obama
Retailers can learn a lot from the marketing triumph that secured the president-elect’s victory.
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Opinion
Sir Philip Green should suit Moss Bros
Sir Philip Green burst back in to the limelight yesterday, snapping up Baugur’s 28.5 per cent stake in battle-weary Moss Bros. The swoop has left the retail sector wondering whether this rare dabble on the stock market for Green will presage an offer for the entire menswear business.
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Opinion
Interest rate cut might just work
When the chief executive of Tesco reportedly breakfasts at the weekend with the Governor of the Bank of England, emphasising the extreme fragility of consumer confidence and pressing for an interest rate cut, it’s a sure sign of torrid times.
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Opinion
Retailers need to pull together
It’s only one month and not the three required to meet the technical definition, but the October total sales decline announced by the British Retail Consortium this week confirms that retail is entering recession.
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Opinion
IT costs linked to success
Retailers have traditionally been stuck with high fixed costs for running their IT, but now the tables are turning as they seek to tie their success and their IT suppliers’ revenues more closely together.
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Opinion
Some retailers can still expand in a recession
The news that Decathlon is one of the names lining up to pick up some MFI stores from administration is likely to be the start of a long line of stories of retailers circling opportunities among weaker players on the market.
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OpinionWhat future for green store design?
Standing admiring the 30,000 “integrated” wind-turbine-to-be on the corner of the forthcoming B&Q eco-store in New Malden, it was hard not to reflect on the way that things have gone with store design and the green agenda.
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Opinion
Sainsbury's Justin King is a man of the people
For a while, retailers didn’t want to mention the R word. But now we’ve officially been told we’re moving into a recession, it seems many retailers are having to think about the other R word – redundancies.
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Opinion
Marks and Spencer must fire on all cylinders
Sir Stuart Rose was telling anyone who would listen this week that he is a glass-half-full type of guy. But even he had to look pretty hard to find much good news in this week’s M&S interims.
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Opinion
City insider Jennifer Creevy: Debenhams is in safe hands
Just a week after leading a preview tour of its new store at Westfield London, Debenhams revealed managing director Angela Spindler is to leave the business.
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Opinion
Could Hadrian’s wall be getting taller?
OK, it isn’t quite the border but I’m concerned that next time I’m in Scotland I’ll discover they now take the euro, drive on the other side of the road and the time zone’s different.
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OpinionEnsure your offer’s built to last
Only longer-lasting products offering real value will move shoppers to spend as recession bites.