All Opinion articles – Page 346

  • Opinion

    Just browsing

    2008-09-03T09:56:54Z

    The technology world is buzzing after Google launched an internet browser yesterday. Some suspect that the application, called Chrome, is just the beginning of Google’s ambitions to develop its own web-based operating system.

  • Opinion

    What's the Verdict?

    2008-09-02T12:56:20Z

    With prescient timing, Verdict has today predicted a revival in retail parks at the expense of city centre retail locations.

  • Opinion

    Stick to your design guns

    2008-09-01T13:54:44Z

    You might be forgiven for thinking that we're experiencing a little local economic difficulty.

  • Opinion

    A forgotten age

    2008-08-29T12:04:58Z

    In all the clamour to convince shoppers that they are the cheapest grocer, some supermarkets have forgotten one demographic group relatively unscathed by the credit crunch – the silver surfers.

  • Opinion

    What hope for Christmas?

    2008-08-28T16:51:31Z

    The dog days of August are almost over. Store chiefs and analysts are back from Monaco and Mustique (or Margate, for those whose options are under water). And the countdown has begun to the year’s biggest retail blowout: Christmas.

  • Opinion

    Supermarkets aren’t so super anymore

    2008-08-28T16:00:36Z

    Post-war, post-rationing 1950s Britain was an era of possibility and growth and the perfect climate for a new retail concept – the supermarket.

  • mark_price_cutout.jpg
    Opinion

    Sentiment is out of proportion

    2008-08-28T15:53:00Z

    Consumer confidence might have nosedived, but is this a reflection of facts or scaremongering?

  • Opinion

    Slim pickings

    2008-08-28T12:09:28Z

    London Fashion Week will begin in a fortnight and will be overshadowed, if not disgruntled, by the obligatory size zero debate.

  • Opinion

    Full of eastern promise

    2008-08-27T11:08:27Z

    For several years, large technology vendors have warned that retailers in the emerging economies would soon be leapfrogging their Western peers when it comes to their use of technology.

  • Opinion

    Investment market lives on

    2008-08-26T11:32:42Z

    There aren't many retailers in the nice position of being able to sell a £605 million property portfolio but still own the bulk of their freeholds.

  • Opinion

    It’s not all greenwash

    2008-08-26T11:29:00Z

    Heading off from Paddington to Dartmouth, it’s hard not to wonder whether a day trip to Devon’s far west is worth it just to look at a wooden supermarket.

  • Opinion

    Are discount grocers the new black?

    2008-08-22T11:42:34Z

    Aldi and Lidl are no longer dirty words for the majority of consumers. In the same way that Primark was once sneered at, discount grocers are becoming fashionable. The question is, how long can it be sustained?

  • danaher tim cutout
    Opinion

    Woolies needs to do an Iceland

    2008-08-21T15:35:00Z

    Downturns seem to suit Malcolm Walker. While most retailers are struggling to get to grips with tougher trading, Walker has steered Iceland to its best performance in a decade and managed to find time to make a bid for Woolworths’ retail business too.

  • Opinion

    Even food can lose its flavour

    2008-08-21T14:18:22Z

    In tough times, investors seek refuge in defensive stocks. In retail that usually means food, but how safe a bet are the big grocers?

  • Opinion

    Spring in Debenhams’ step

    2008-08-21T13:03:16Z

    Next month, Cortefiel will finally make its much-anticipated entry into the UK market, when its eponymous fascia and young-fashion label Springfield launches in Debenhams.

  • Opinion

    Will a new rider alter Woolies’ course?

    2008-08-21T12:09:00Z

    The going was far from good, but Sir Stuart made it over the hurdles to land his dream job of executive chairman at Marks & Spencer.

  • Opinion

    Aim to be valued, not value

    2008-08-21T12:05:25Z

    Quality of service, not just product, will protect specialists from the grocers and the web.

  • Opinion

    Enemy at the gate?

    2008-08-20T10:34:07Z

    The results of the National Gateway Security Survey released this morning show that securing networks against external attacks is still the top priority for most companies, despite evidence clearly highlighting the continuing risk of internal attacks.

  • Opinion

    Retailers are landlords too

    2008-08-19T12:02:12Z

    Whether it be monthly rents or upward-only rent reviews, there are always tensions between landlords and retailers. What tends to be forgotten is that retailers are often landlords too.

  • Opinion

    Shopfitters are feeling the heat

    2008-08-18T12:50:42Z

    You know things are not as good as they might be when the questioner becomes the questioned. Speak to almost any design consultancy or shopfitter at present and the question being popped is: “How are other people finding it?”