PetSmart: A Barking Buy
from Barrons
Cash-strapped consumers are still eager to splurge on their pets, helping PetSmart post some of the best sales and earnings growth in the retail sector. The stock is playing dead -- for now. More

Best Buy to Sell Green Vehicles
from The Wall Street Journal
Best Buy Co., best known as a vendor of giant televisions, is veering in a new direction: selling green vehicles. America's largest consumer-electronics retailer by sales has quietly begun offering electric-powered scooters, bicycles and Segway Inc. transporters in 19 locations in California, Oregon and Washington. It is throttling up the venture this summer with the introduction of the Brammo Enertia, a futuristic electric motorcycle that can travel 45 miles at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour and plugs into a standard wall outlet. More

Incandescent Bulbs Return to the Cutting Edge
from The New York Times
When Congress passed a new energy law two years ago, obituaries were written for the incandescent light bulb. The law set tough efficiency standards, due to take effect in 2012, that no traditional incandescent bulb on the market could meet, and a century-old technology that helped create the modern world seemed to be doomed. More

Dumpster Diving: A Green Strategy that Pays Off for Retailers
from GreenBiz
Retailers that put green practices to work throughout their business operation can save tens of millions of dollars a year by managing resources and waste more aggressively, according to SSA & Company. "Retailers spend millions of dollars on their green agendas, but never see the opportunity those agendas present to operate smarter, more efficiently, and with lower cost," Suzanne Long, the Retail Practice leader for the global operations consulting firm, said in a statement announcing the release yesterday of the SSA & Company's white paper, "Going Green in the Retail Industry." More

Communities Confront 'Ghostbox' Buildings When Big-Box Retailers Leave
from The Los Angeles Times
Hundreds of anxious shoppers watched as city officials used power saws to cut 2-by-4s during Home Depot Inc.'s ribbon-cutting ceremony for its 102,700-square-foot building center in Bismarck. Less than three years later, the home improvement retailer shuttered the underperforming store, leaving a big orange empty eyesore on the outskirts of town. More

Barnes & Noble Adds an iPhone App to its M-Commerce Operation
from Internet Retailer
Barnes & Noble Inc. just joined the small but growing club of retailers with mobile apps. The merchant, which already has an m-commerce web site, has unveiled in Apple Inc.’s App Store the B&N Bookstore app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. While there are some comparison shopping and similar mobile apps available for the iPhone and other brands of smartphones, the new B&N Bookstore app is one of only 15 or so operated by retailers. More

Short Circuit for Electronics Retailers
from The Wall Street Journal
Old shopping habits die hard. At least that is the trend emerging among former Circuit City Stores customers who have left specialty electronics stores behind. A year ago, Circuit City accounted for roughly 8 percent of sales at U.S. electronics and appliance stores, according to Census Bureau estimates. But as bankrupt Circuit City has shut stores, little of its business seems to have reappeared in the specialty electronics sector. More

Foot Locker Finds Its Footing
from Seeking Alpha
Foot Locker may have been tripped up by a fashion shift away from sneakers and the slowdown in consumer spending, but Barron's Christopher C. Williams says the company is finding its footing once again.The nation's largest retailer of athletic footwear, Foot Locker has $5B in annual revenue, with footwear making up 80 percent percent of sales and athletic apparel making up the rest. It operates in 21 countries, and gets 25 percent of its revenue from international sales. More

Retailers Cut 21,000 Jobs in June
from the Associated Press
Retail job cuts moderated in June, when U.S. merchants trimmed 21,000 as they kept shuttering stores, but weakness in the overall job market looms over retailers, who need consumers to spend more freely. June was the 17th straight month that retailers cut jobs, but they trimmed much less than their 12-month industry average of 50,000, according to Sophia Koropeckyj, managing director of Moody's Economy.com, a division of Moody's Analytics. More

Shoppers Hitting Dollar Stores for Recession-friendly Prices
from The Telegraph
Attention bargain hunters: If you're looking for ways to keep a little spare change in your pocket, consider the dollar stores and other discount outlets that offer deep cuts on everything from pots and pans to potato chips. For a buck, you can buy a pregnancy test kit or scoop up a jar of peanut butter at one local dollar store. You can also find batteries, light bulbs, cleaning products, greeting cards, chewing gum, and cough drops, all for a dollar or a small multiple of that amount. More

Why Front-of-Store Ads Are Grabbing Consumers' Attention
from BrandWeek
Advertising company StoreBoard Media has been running in-store billboard displays on security pedestals for clients like Johnson & Johnson, Alberto Culver and Cadbury. Located at the front entrances of major drug store chains, this type of media buy allows marketers to catch consumers’ attention the moment they walk into the store. StoreBoard Media, which boasts about 13,000 retail locations within its network, runs displays one advertiser at a time (per store) to “reduce clutter,” said company president Rick Sirvaitis. More