March/April 2013

Mark Wagner knows Walgreen Co. isn't just part of the retail channel-blurring that's occurring throughout the nation. With a new emphasis on wellness and more food in its stores, the company hopes to profit from it. But its position wasn't always that clear.

The market for mergers and acquisitions might be heating up, but exclusive research from Retail Leader indicates fewer than half of companies expect to buy or sell a business unit in 2013.

Adapted from "Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business" (Harvard Business Review Press)

In the article, McMillanDoolittle senior partner Neil Stern cautions, "No one has ever cut their way to prosperity. You certainly need to get costs into control so you can be competitive, but cost control in itself isn't a winning strategy."

In a collaborative data program, a retailer provides a manufacturer with, at the very least, real-time, or close to real-time, information about sales velocity and volume of the manufacturer's SKUs at each of its stores.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 14,559.65 on March 26, topping its all-time high set in 2007, ahead of the global financial crisis. The S&P 500 index rose to its own record of 1,569.19 on March 28, up from its previous all-time-high closing price of 1565.15 set on Oct. 7, 2007.

Four men and four women of varying backgrounds, education, professions, etc., were present, and all were very enthusiastic and engaged in the process. After all, this was the opportunity to plan the perfect store where they could visualize all of the ideal shopping elements in one place.