Retail Technology Blog

IKEA not coming to India, not yet

2009-06-14T22:27:00.001+05:30

IKEA has scrapped their plans of setting shops in India. The Sweden-based Furniture giant shelved plans to foray into retail business in India until the Indian government allows 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in single-brand retailing in the country.

From Economic Times:

IKEA, which was hoping to invest $1 billion in India to establish a retail chain including stores in Delhi and Mumbai, was disappointed by what it perceived to be a lack of an early government action in the issue, the officials said. The investment was to flow through the single-brand FDI window and the furniture giant had hired staff for the retail venture and was preparing for a significant foray into the Indian market.
Swedish company was hoping that the government will raise the FDI limit in this segment to 100% from the existing 51%. With the government indicating that it has no immediate plans of raising the FDI limit for single-brand retail, the company has indicated that it did not want to enter the Indian market now. A number of global brands, such as Reebok and Louis Vuitton, French Connection and Jimmy Choo, are present here through the single-brand retail window.

Unilever to Test Mobile Coupons

2009-05-30T12:13:00.001+05:30

Unilever is beginning a trial to test a new technology that lets consumers redeem digital coupons by having a supermarket cashier scan their mobile phones. Interest in Mobile coupons is growing day by day and these tests will allow Unilever to understand the use of them.

Unilever to Test Mobile Coupons - WSJ.com

The test, being conducted at a ShopRite store in Hillsborough, N.J., will include discount offers for some of the Anglo-Dutch packaged-goods company's most popular brands, including Breyers ice cream, Dove soap, Hellmann's mayonnaise and Lipton tea. Samplesaint, a Chicago mobile-technology firm, developed the system.

"This has been a Holy Grail thing that people have been trying to figure out," says Marc Shaw, director of integrated marketing at Unilever, the first major marketer to test such a service in the U.S. "I think this is on target for where consumers' heads are at right now."

To get the coupons, customers must visit the Web site Samplesaint.com, from which they can transmit the Unilever discount offers to an Internet-enabled cellphone. At checkout, the cashier scans the bar code on the phone's screen, redeeming the coupon and deleting it from the phone. The test will run for four weeks, and Mr. Shaw says he hopes to see it extended to other stores after that.

12 Worst Mistakes in Retail Technology and How to Avoid Them

2009-05-25T00:20:00.001+05:30

Watch Retail Speaker & Retail Consultant Jim Dion talk about 12 worst mistakes in Retail Technology and how to avoid them.

Retailers continue to invest in future development despite recession

2009-05-24T22:41:00.001+05:30

According to a recent survey from SAP (done in conjunction with British Retail Consortium), more than 51% retailers are looking at different channels to increase revenue and are moving online in a big way. Another big outcome was the fact that 54% of respondents to the survey believe that focusing on improving the customer experience will be the key driver to surviving the downturn.

More competition to Pharmacies from Wal-Mart

2009-05-05T09:58:00.001+05:30

WSJ.com is reporting that Wal-Mart is offering businesses low-priced drugs if they sign up to buy directly from Wal-Mart's network of in-store pharmacies, rather than contracting to buy drugs through third parties known as pharmacy-benefit managers. This will heat up competition for other Pharmacies and Retailers by increasing footfall to Wal-Mart stores. And you all know what happens when you visit a store like Wal-Mart, you tend to buy lot more than what you go in for.

Apparently the Pilot companies have already seen benefit from buying directly from Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart began a trial of its program in September with heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar Co., which provides prescription coverage for 70,000 employees and their dependents. Wal-Mart negotiated a fixed markup over its cost for the drugs it sells to Caterpillar's employees under the heavy-equipment maker's in-house insurance. Though Wal-Mart doesn't reveal the costs to Caterpillar, they are verified by a third party. The markup guarantees a profit for Wal-Mart, while reducing the cost to Caterpillar.Todd Bisping, who manages Caterpillar's drug-benefits program, said the company was able to reduce its drug costs enough that it waived copayments on generic prescriptions bought from Wal-Mart.

Video: How Best Buy Uses Social Technologies To Change Internal Culture

2009-04-18T12:12:00.001+05:30

Jeremiah Owyang has a video on how Best Buy uses social technologies internally. I agree with Jeremiah that success of Social Media hinges on how many employees really believe and are active users of all things Social. Check it out here, Video: How Best Buy Uses Social Technologies To Change Internal Culture.

Virtual Reality for Shopping Research

2009-04-18T11:36:00.001+05:30

Virtual Reality Simulations of Stores can provide a peek into the mind of consumers while being easy on Retailers pockets. Brandweek has a story on how consumer research firms are offering programs which allow Virtual Reality simulations of Stores, Virtual Shopping, Real Results

“We instruct respondents to shop as they normally would and ask them which displays capture the most attention,” said Covkin. “Because it’s virtual, you can change things on the fly.”
Testing new products in a real store environment would be too expensive and time-consuming, Covkin said. “In the perfect world, we’d be testing everything in a real store environment. However, due to the time it takes to implement an effective test and get compliance with retailers, the cost is enormous.”

Crowdsourcing coming to Retailers

2009-04-05T22:30:00.001+05:30

Over the last couple of years, we have been seeing a surge in the crowdsourcing idea and innovation sites. Dell has Ideastorm, P&G has Connect+Develop. All the sites express their needs clearly and allows customers and partners to suggest new ideas. Retailers have picked the trend, first it was Starbuck with Mystarbucksidea, now Campbell has joined these companies by launching CampbellIdeas.com.

From Supermarketnews:

Campbell Soup Company (NYSE: CPB) is inviting scientists, entrepreneurs and inventors to submit their ideas via a new Web site called “Campbell’s Ideas for Innovation.” The site, which can be accessed at www.campbellideas.com, has been established to provide an easy way for people to submit their innovative ideas to Campbell for evaluation.

Campbell is focused on generating ideas in the areas of new products, packaging innovation, product line extensions, environmental sustainability, business processes and marketing. The company also is interested in new technologies related to sodium reduction, vegetable nutrition and healthier fats and oils.

We will see more and more retailers coming on board and using customers and partners for Idea Innovation.

SAP for Retail Solution Adoption Increases in India

2009-03-24T19:16:00.001+05:30

SAP has been making giant leaps in India with increased adoption of its software in retail industry. I had blogged about the same few months back and that time SAP had over 60 Retailers to talk about, the list now has gone upto 72.

Over 72 leading retailers, including DLF Retail, Khadim Jewellers, Fresh & Honest Cafe, Super Religare Laboratories and Religare Wellness Limited, Dimexon Diamonds and C Mahendra, have simplified business processes, reduced cost and adapted to the changing industry landscape with the adoption of SAP for retail solutions.

Retailers are using SAP for building end to end solutions and not just as ERP.

In the retail sector, technology is deployed not only in accounting and human resource management, but also in core functions like buying, merchandising and store management.
"IT applications are witnessing adoption from the very beginning till the 'last mile' of the business operation for most retail functions and the key solutions being looked upon by retailers in India today are ERP/ERM solutions, supply chain management (SCM), inventory management and security solutions," said Arpan Gupta, manager-services, BPO & Industry Verticals Research, IDC India.

Retailers across the board are using SAP technology for greater visibility into consumer spending trends. Among the latest implementation of SAP in India is DLF's foray into retail - adopting SAP for retail solutions including SAP POS.

5 Key Trends From NRF Which May Separate The “Has Beens,” The “Survivors” & “Thrivers”

2009-03-04T22:04:00.001+05:30

Via Microsoft Retail & Hospitality Newsletter, got to read the Retail TouchPoints insightful article on the 5 key trends they observed in this year’s NRF event. The retailers who are able to manage the following 5 trends will emerge the winners in this downtrend. The Key trends include, Efficiency/Cost Savings, Analytics/Business Intelligence, Customer Centricity, Connected Channels and The Arrival Of Mobile Commerce.

StorefrontBacktalk -P&G’s Decision To Pull Back From Wal-Mart RFID Trial Quite Understandable

2009-02-19T21:01:00.001+05:30

Thought provoking article by StorefrontBackTalk on P&G’s decision to pull back from Wal-Mart RFID Trial. Key takeaway, The test failed and not the technology.

P&G’s Decision To Pull Back From Wal-Mart RFID Trial Quite Understandable

Say what you will about RFID, but it is the picture-perfect companion for hyperbole. Any development is either instant death for RFID or the magic trend that will make item-level RFID universal by late Friday morning.

It’s therefore not surprising that so much has been made of the decision by Procter & Gamble (P&G) to abandon its tagged promotional displays at Wal-Mart. On the one hand, this can be seen as a setback for such tagging projects. P&G touted the effectiveness of its display tagging project often.

Given P&G’s reputation for ROI worship, many assumed the company pulled the plug because RFID was failing the test.

What is closer to the truth is that the test failed, not the technology. And to the extent that Wal-Mart was as much a player in this trial as P&G, it could also be said that the test didn’t fail, the tester did.

NRF Annual 2009 Coverage

2009-01-14T16:54:00.001+05:30

For all those who are not able to go to the NRF Annual Convention (which is currently on, Jan 11-14), here are few links which gives the dope on the big things being announced/discussed in the convention.

-- NRF's event blog – Covers Q&As with speakers, show highlights etc.

-- A lot of news coming from Microsoft, 1. Accenture, Avanade and Microsoft Announce Multi-Channel Retail Initiative, 2. Microsoft Releases Windows Embedded POSReady 2009, 3. Microsoft launches The Retail Experience Center. You can read other Microsoft NRF related stories here, Microsoft Retail: Press Materials.

-- Shop.org Member blog – Good coverage of the convention, some recent topics discussed included Digital Retailing , Investing in E-Commerce in 2009.

Microsoft Tag – Endless possibilities for Retailers

2009-01-11T13:45:00.001+05:30

In the recently conducted Consumer Electronic Show, Microsoft launched Microsoft Tag, real innovative concept to connect mobile barcodes (or tags) on physical objects to online content (opening mobile content, videos, music, contact information, promotions etc). The tag appears as shown below (this one will tag you to my blog, Retail Technology Blog).

From Microsoft Tag website:

Microsoft Tag creates unlimited possibilities for making interactive communications an instant, entertaining part of life. They tranform physical media (print advertising, billboards,product packages, information signs, in-store merchandising, or even video images)—into live links for accessing information and entertainment online.

With the Microsoft Tag application, just aim your camera phone at a Tag and instantly access mobile content, videos, music, contact information, maps, social networks, promotions, and more. Nothing to type, no browsers to launch!

The sophisticated technology powering Microsoft Tag, High Capacity Color Barcodes (HCCBs), was invented by Microsoft Research. It was designed from the ground up for maximum performance with the limited cameras on most mobile phones. Advanced image-processing techniques decode even out-of-focus barcode images, which means Microsoft Tag works with the fixed-focus camera lenses common in most mobile devices.

The advanced computer imaging of HCCBs employs different symbol shapes in geometric patterns and multiple colors to provide more information in less space.

The possibilities are endless for retailers, consider the following scenarios:

-- You go to a store and check out a box of cereals, you see Microsoft tag on the box, you use your Mobile phone Microsoft Tag Reader and you could be shown promotion around the box, you can compare prices with other brand of cereals etc.

-- You go to a store and check out Morningstar Farms Maple Flavored Sausage Patties box and using Microsoft Tag Reader app on your iPhone you are taken to the MSN Chef to the rescue website and are shown Recipes around the product. You are also shown the nutrition information about the product. This will ensure that you buy other ingredients along with the product for the recipe you just decided.

-- You buy a Laptop from Electronics and see a Microsoft Tag on the backside of Laptop. You click it using Microsoft Tag Reader app on your mobile and voila, you just registered your Laptop. You may also be shown the accessories you can buy for your laptop.

These are just few uses I could think on top of my head, there could be 100’s of such scenarios both offline and online. I definitely see Microsoft Tags being targeted by Retailers soon. You can try the app out, here, http://www.microsoft.com/tag/content/download/.

Holidays over, now comes the returns

2009-01-04T20:42:00.001+05:30

With holiday season over and most of the purchases done, now comes the time when consumers are expected to return holiday purchases. And to make it worse, this time it will be more than the usual.

Returned merchandise in 2008 is expected to make up 8.7% of overall sales, up from 7.3% in 2007, according to retail trade group National Retail Federation.

It will be weeks before most retailers disclose the size of their holiday returns. However, a survey of 1,000 shoppers conducted on Christmas found a whopping 86% of parents said that if their children didn't love their gifts, they would take them back for a refund or exchange, says America's Research Group, a consumer research firm.

The Charleston, S.C., firm predicts returns and exchanges during the week after Christmas would rise 50% over the same period a year earlier.

Another reason that analysts expect higher return rates is that some retailers relaxed their return polices this year to boost their appeal to jittery consumers. More than half of the 82 major retailers that the NRF surveyed in November said their holiday return policies were more lenient this season. In 2007, that was the case for only 35% of retailers that the NRF surveyed.

J.C. Penney Co., for example, allows returns for customers without a receipt if they present the credit-card used to make the purchase. Target Corp. gives customers gift cards for items up to $35 without a receipt, up from $20 last year.

CBSNews also carried a segment on Retail Returns, check the video below:

So what do Retailers do in such a scenario? Multichannel Merchant has a list of do’s and don’ts on exactly the same, Making the Most of Retail Returns.

India’s Wal-Mart sailing through difficult times

2009-01-03T17:13:00.001+05:30

Kishore Biyani’s Future Group seems to be buoyant and is expecting all store formats to do well in current quarter.

“I don’t see a problem in this quarter. February and March are traditionally good months for us and with interest rates coming down, we hope to do well (in the quarter),” Future Group chief executive officer Kishore Biyani said.

With regard to Future Retail, Biyani said October and November were “two good months” for them in terms of sales. Then in December, it announced the three-week long Great Indian Shopping Festival, which would end on 4 January.

The Big Bazaar brand of Future Group has resonated well with the consumers for both in terms of price and value, qualities which is making Wal-Mart thrive in the downturn.

Worst Holiday Performance since 1970

2009-01-02T09:34:00.001+05:30

In what turns out to be worst holiday performance since 1970, International Council of Shopping Centers, says that based on its estimate sales in the week ended Saturday fell 1.8% below year-earlier levels, it now expects same-store sales in December to decline by at least 1%.

Discounts Fail to Save Retailers' Holiday - WSJ.com (registration reqd)

The outlook for many retailers, however, is even worse. Excluding the results of discount giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has been outperforming its rivals, sales at stores open at least a year -- a key barometer of retail performance -- could fall as much as 8% below year-earlier levels, according to Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the shopping-center group.

The ICSC expects December same-store sales to decline by 11%, 10% and 8% at J.C. Penney Co., Kohl's Corp. and Target Corp. respectively, compared with an increase of 3% at Wal-Mart.

The industry's poor performance in December follows an even more dismal November, when same-store sales at retailers tracked by the ICSC fell 2.7%, the biggest monthly drop since the group began recording year-to-year changes in sales in 1970.

The only silver lining, Wal-Mart outperforming other Retailers.

Happy New Year 2009 !!

2009-01-01T21:01:00.001+05:30

Here’s wishing all the readers of this blog, a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2009 !! Hope this year brings cheers to all Retailers and Consumers and we all learn quickly to be recession proof.

Digital Will Impact Retail Next Year

2008-12-25T18:42:00.001+05:30

Retail will be one of the trend areas and we will see more digital interactive solutions in Retail in the next year. IPG Emerging Media Labs identifies five trend areas to watch next year related to browsers, conversation, transmission, retail and consumer tech.

Even in the depths of a recession, interactive retail solutions will soar in 2009, IPG says. An online experience punctuated by smart signs, interactive mirrors, loyalty programs and other features is enhancing the consumers' and brands' ability to constantly be connected to the Web and each other by mobile phone. Google's mobile bar code reader Zxing enables photography and decoding of barcodes for more product data, and SnapNow provides price comparisons and peer ratings from Amazon.com.

Such real-time shopping assistance is matched by audience measurement on sight in stores to provide more relevant target advertising that more likely results in a purchase.

Check this cool slide deck on what the future could be like for Retail.

Interactive Solutions for the Retail Industry - LM3LABS solutions

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: lm3labs retail)

Merry Christmas to you all :)

Hitting Home Run with a Viral

2008-12-21T19:30:00.001+05:30

JC Penney seems to have hit run with a very viral marketing campaign titled, Beware of the Doghouse. The campaign allows women to put their their significant other in the "Doghouse" for bad gift choices this holiday season. This new site and the marketing campaign behind it provide a fun, interactive way for women to encourage the men they love to get out of the “Doghouse,” by purchasing affordable diamond gifts from The Jewelry Store inside JCPenney. Not just that the campaign makes use of Facebook Connect application, which allows Facebook users to easily log into their account and select potential “Doghouse” candidates from their Facebook Friends list. The application also allows photo downloads from the profile pages and feeds stories from the site to the candidate’s Facebook Wall. The website and video has spread like wildfire over the web this past few weeks.

This is a great example of how Retailers are using Social Media and innovative marketing to connect with customers and generate sales.

Retailers find Facebook friends in hopes of finding sales

Why JCPenney's 'The Doghouse' Went Viral

Google Focuses on Retail Basics

2008-12-21T12:19:00.001+05:30

eMarketer Article on how Google focuses on driving sales offline instead of online for Retailers.

“If you look at any retailer, maybe 92% of the revenue is coming from the brick-and-mortar channel, so the most important platform to make successful is driving people to a store,” Mr. McAteer said. “A small percentage of retailers’ spending is online, and the majority of their advertising dollars are still being spent offline.”

“Within 12 months, you’re going see a lot of retailers talking about how they are measuring in-store success from their online marketing, and it will open up a whole other way of looking at ROI from your dot-com spend,” Mr. McAteer said. “As smart retailers start to figure it out, they will probably shift more of their marketing dollars online.”

It’s not surprising for Google to suggest that online ad and marketing spending will increase, but marketers themselves tend to value online tactics highly.

Quote of the season

2008-12-09T12:24:00.002+05:30

This quote by Abercrombie CEO, Michael Jeffries in an earnings call with analysts last month. I guess many retailers will feel the after effects of the markdowns this season in the coming 2-4 months.

“Promotions are a short-term solution with dreadful long-term effects.”

Read more in this WSJ story, Abercrombie Fights Discount Tide (Registration required).

We hear your concerns," said Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Jeffries in an earnings call with analysts last month, but "promotions are a short-term solution with dreadful long-term effects." Marking down clothes now could lead to the brand being seen as something cheap, he explained.

Even in good times, Abercrombie has always shied away from big promotions, though it does try to clear out merchandise at the end of a season. The company's determination to keep prices high as the economy sours has already cost it dearly during the holiday season, which accounts for an estimated 30% of total teen retail sales.

Retail Weekly Roundup – 6

2008-12-06T21:25:00.002+05:30

With so many things to write about and not enough time, I am restarting the Retail Weekly Roundup posts. The posts will provide a view on how Retailers are using technology today.

How Retailers Can Benefit From Social Media

Shopping is an inherently social activity. Why, for instance, do people go to the mall? To buy things, of course. But also to walk around, meet friends, people-watch and socialize.
By contrast, shopping on the Internet has been a lonely and solitary experience, which may explain why the average e-commerce site has a paltry 3-percent conversion rate. That means 97 percent of people who go to an online retailer in search of a product never buy what they're looking for.
However, for some retailers, social media is proving to be a valuable tool for engaging consumers, driving sales and building customer loyalty like never before. By adding social media content and capabilities to their sites -- including ratings, reviews, recommendations, blogs, photo galleries and forums -- retailers are transforming their Web properties into online destinations with vibrant communities.

Willard Bishop: The Re-emergence of Service Pricing

The single most important challenge facing companies today is finding a path towards greater value creation. Historically, value resided in the products themselves. Manufacturers developed and marketed products, and there was little focus on services or high-end customer solutions. Today, a large component of value has migrated from the product itself to how the product is moved through to the consumer.

With a challenging economy and increasing supply costs, there is a reemerging interest by Walmart and other retailers to find ways to leverage the value chain to put even more distance between themselves and less efficient competitors. How companies are structured to extract profit from the value chain is becoming more important and is leading to a renewed interest in cost-to-serve and Service Pricing programs.

Stores Retail Deals – Some key ones below, click on link to read more.

Tomax and Revionics have entered into a strategic partnership to provide workforce optimization and price optimization solutions to grocery retailers.

Several online retailers, including Lands' End, ProFlowers, PacSun, RedEnvelope and BuyCostumes, have selected CitizenHawk as their digital brand management solutions provider.
New York-based wine retailer California Wine Merchants has launched its lower Manhattan retail store and e-commerce website, built and managed with CORESense’s Multi-Channel Retail Management Software solution.

Sherwin-Williams will be standardizing on SUSE Linux Enterprise point of service as the operating system for its retail store multi-function desktop/registers and in-store servers.

Personal Shopping Devices Preparing For Tipping Point In Adoption In 2009 [via Microsoft Retail & Hospitality Communique]

Personal shopping devices for consumers are reaching their “tipping point”. With Stop & Shop, a strong regional supermarket chain, signaling success with an initial test of its personal shopping device, experts say 2009 could be the beginning of the handheld era for grocery, warehouse clubs and pharmacies. Stop & Shop recently added to its new logo, color palette and employee uniforms, a handheld device, called Easyshop, which allows shoppers to scan, track and bag their groceries while they shop. The goal is larger basket size for grocery retailers, higher purchase goals for time-pressed shoppers, more total trips to the store, and higher coupon redemption rates. While the universe for consumer-facing handhelds for retail is still small, employee facing handhelds and consumer facing devices are ranked number two and three on the list of opportunities for improving the in-store experience.

10 Superstars of Retailing Beat the Downturn

As shoppers cut back on all but the most vital purchases in the economic downturn, some retailers have beat the odds and have discovered the winning formula for success. Ten retailers including BJ's, Walgreens and Hot Topic continue to post higher than expected financial results, announce store expansion plans and remain poised for future success as we enter 2009. RIS News highlights 10 surprisingly successful retailers that are surviving and thriving in one of the toughest economic climate in years.

Retailers Clueless About Mobile Barcode Scanning Apps

2008-12-06T19:46:00.002+05:30

NYTimes.com has a story on how Retailers are unaware of Mobile Barcode Scanning Apps which provide instant price comparison and allow users to save money.

These apps allow consumers to compare the prices of merchandise on a store's shelf to competing stores in the area just by taking pictures with their smartphone's camera. The prices are instantly retrieved and displayed on the mobile phone so consumers can know before they buy if they're getting a good deal.

Although consumers may be catching on to this barcode-scanning trend, some stores are still in the dark. For example, a Target store in Michigan recently requested a shopper to stop scanning merchandise, saying it went against store policy. The customer reported the event to the application's makers, Big in Japan, whose app Shop Savvy is a popular download for Android handsets.

I have written about similar app for iPhone in the past. It is a great way to save money in these difficult times. If you are a retailer what would you do, encourage consumers using such application or deny them a chance to save money?

Black Friday Sales -2008

2008-12-03T00:52:00.002+05:30

Shop Talk has good coverage of the Black Friday Sales which has been released by different agencies.

National Retail Federation: According its 2008 Black Friday Weekend survey, conducted by BIGresearch and published on Sunday, the NRF said more than 172 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend (which includes Thursday, Friday, Saturday and projections for Sunday), up from 147 million shoppers last year. Shoppers spent an average of $372.57 this weekend, up 7.2 percent over last year’s $347.55. Total spending reached an estimated $41.0 billion, up from $34.6 billion a year ago.

ShopperTrak RCT’s National Retail Sales Estimate found sales on Black Friday and Saturday rose 1.9 percent from 2007 – with each day posting total sales of $10.6 billion and $6.0 billion, respectively. It said Saturday sales fell 0.8 percent compared with last year as most Black Friday promotions ended. Sales on Saturday last year rose 5.4 percent over 2006, with $6.1 billion spent that day.

On Monday, SpendingPulse, a data service provided by MasterCard Advisors, said sales at U.S. specialty apparel retailers rose 1.6 percent on Friday and Saturday from a year earlier, but sales at electronics specialty retailers fell 14.3 percent. Luxury retailers saw a 2.4 percent increase, while e-commerce sales rose 11.8 percent, it said.

Other coverage here:

NYTimes.com: Retailers Get a Brief Lift on Black Friday as Shoppers Look for Blockbuster Sales

MarketWatch: Black Friday doesn't a season make

Seeking Alpha: Retailers Will Find It Hard to Keep Shoppers' Attention This Year

Seeking Alpha: Quick Thoughts on Black Friday Retail

Media and Retailers Both Built Black Friday

2008-12-01T20:30:00.002+05:30

NYTimes.com has a thought provoking article on death by trampling of a temporary worker at Wal-Mart on the day of Black Friday. The article points out on how Retailers and Media are equal to blame for the death.

The willingness of people to walk over another human being to get at the right price tag raises the question of how they got that way in the first place. But in the search for the usual suspects and parceling of blame, the news media should include themselves.

Just a few days ago, the same newspaper writers and television anchors who are now wearily shaking their heads at the collective bankruptcy of our mass consumer culture were cheering all of it on.

…

Media and retail outfits are economic peas in a pod. Part of the reason that the Thanksgiving newspaper and local morning television show are stuffed with soft features about shopping frenzies is that they are stuffed in return with ads from retailers.

“Media outlets have been stride for stride with the retailers,” said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst for the NPD Group, a market research firm. Speaking on the phone on Friday evening after nearly 24 hours of working the malls, he suggested, “Something like this was bound to happen at some point. The man who died at Wal-Mart was, from what I understand, a temporary employee and had no idea what he was dealing with.”

What do you think of this? Are Retailers to blame for this debacle or Media for driving the madness.