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Retail Paradox Weekly
Retail News Analysis by RSR Research
January 22, 2008
Pixels and Pizazz: A Review of NRF's 2008 Big Show
By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
1/22/2008
It's ironic that the annual NRF show's roots are in Times Square (for those of you who remember, before there was a Javits Convention Center, the NRF's Big Show used to be held at the mid-town Hilton and Sheraton, starting on mezzanines and extending into rabbit warren-like basements). Times have changed. Much of this year's NRF looked a lot like the digital media displays in
Times Square today; replete with pixels and pizzazz. It made the Mother Cabrini Marching Band of days gone by seem downright quiet and serene. Just when you didn’t think it could get any bigger… it did!
It would be unfair for us to try to list in detail all that we saw, or even passed by. What you look to us for are trends, and trends we shall give you... More
Merchandising 2008: A Question of Singularity
By Steve Rowen, Partner
1/22/2008
Last week we speculated about the state of the
US economy and how branded retailers' merchandising efforts could fare in a period of downturn.
This week, global stock markets have already been negatively affected due to fears surrounding the
US mortgage market. Hoger Schmieding, Bank of
America' s chief European economist told the NY Times yesterday that "There’s something approaching panic in the (global) market. There's been a reassessment in the market of the U.S. economic outlook, with most people now thinking that there will be a recession," and the numbers, so far, seem to fall in line with his sentiment... More
NRF's Big Show: 'Don't Worry, Be Happy!'
By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner
1/22/2008
Retailers throw off the blues in NYC (or at least that’s what technology vendors hope).
A retail colleague once told me that when attending the January National Retail Federation (NRF) event in New York City, retailers go to either drown their sorrows or toast to a successful year. Based on the good cheer in evidence, it was hard to tell last week that many retailers were coming off of a very difficult December, although many certainly were. Indeed, even if retailers weren’t singing the blues at the Javits Center last week, four miles down the road at the New York Stock Exchange, the market was playing in a minor key... More
NRF: The Digital Consumer Takes Center Stage
By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
1/22/2008
As I continually received email alerts at NRF from the Wall Street Journal about negative news on the economy and how we're apparently sliding towards a recession, the inside of NRF reflected a very positive atmosphere – vendors had a full slate of appointments and were happy with the level of walk-up traffic. Further, retailers with technology shopping lists didn’t seem phased by the slew of negative indicators, most especially some big negative comparative store sales results from December.
I took this to mean one of two things... More
Copyright © 2008 RSR Research LLC. RSR is a tradename of Retail Systems Research LLC. All Rights Reserved
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