Devrew Merchandising Inc. and TeamHaven team up

Brampton, Ontario—March 30, 2009— Devrew Merchandising Inc. is a full service, national field sales, merchandising company that conducts servicing programs for a great number of high profile companies throughout Canada. Devrew is a Canadian company focused upon the unique characteristics of retailing in Canada.
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Retail Strategy – Now is Not the Time to Walk Away From It

In today’s tough economic environment, now might be the worst time for retailers to abandon their
go-to-market strategies. Some of what you have developed may still work, and more importantly,
you don’t want to destroy the trust you’ve worked so hard to earn in the eyes of your shoppers.
The winners are those who have a unique value proposition and unrelenting commitment from their
top executives to further sharpen that proposition and do everything they can—from focusing on the
shopper, cutting costs, and keeping an eye on competition to staying the course. The rest—those
who are struggling—have decided not to adhere to or even abandon their strategic objectives and
instead are chasing their customers, investing for short-term versus long-term gains, and trying to
morph into something “on the fly.”

Realizing that it has taken many, many years for retailers like you to build trust with the shopper
and define who you are—whether it’s the neighborhood grocery store, the value provider, or the
one-stop shopping place—in today’s difficult economic times, instead of trying to make a radical
change—which will truly take years to achieve sustainable results—why not strengthen who it is you
worked so hard and long to become?

In this edition of Competitive Edge we’ll discuss a process to help retailers strategically stay the
course and provide insights into how to validate and modify your strategic path in these
competitive, difficult economic times.

Download the March 2009 issue

Office Depot Announces Expanded Assortment of Specialty Paper, Resume Products and Printing Services at Retail Stores

BOCA RATON, Fla., Mar 30, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — ODP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating — Office Depot(R) (NYSE:ODP), a leading global provider of office products and services, today announced it will showcase an expanded assortment of specialty paper and printing services at Office Depot retail locations that will provide customers with even more options and convenient on-site design and printing capabilities for resumes, small business marketing collateral, presentations, and more.

With millions of Americans currently seeking new positions in the workforce and starting new small businesses, it is more important than ever to have the proper presentation materials to make a good first impression.

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Announcements Enhance Member Communication and Reach

It was a busy week for news coming out of NARMS International HQ. First, the association announced that members can now post their news releases on www.narms.com. The second was the announcement that NARMS International has established a presence on the red-hot micro-blogging tool, Twitter. Both developments enhance overall association communication and take advantage of the latest web technology and networking approaches.

NARMS members can now utilize the reach and heightened searchability of www.narms.com to help get their news and announcements out to the marketplace. Currently, new items posted on www.narms.com get picked up by Google in minutes. Simply email a MS Word document or send an email to membernews@narms.com. Your subject and body copy must be clearly stated, following standard news release guidelines. To ensure your news release is posted in a timely manner, please send the release as press-ready. Also, please make sure the information is correct before sending as corrections, while they will be done, take time. Your original release will be the one Google picks up and may not pick up the corrected version. For more guidelines and instructions, click here. You must be a NARMS member in good standing to post news to the site.

By signing up on Twitter.com, NARMS members and others with a stake in the at-retail merchandising and marketing industry can tweet out their thoughts, news and ideas to be posted using the micro-blogging tool. This announcement is especially exciting as NARMS members prepare to converge at the 14th Annual NARMS Spring Meeting and Exhibition to take place at in Colorado Springs, CO. Association leaders are encouraging members to subscribe to Twitter.com and use their iPhone, Blackberry, cell phone and PC to tweet during the Conference. Attendees and folks back home can join in the Conference by following http://twitter.com/NARMS (@narms)

“This technology affords us the unique opportunity to share immediate feedback to speakers and workshops,” said NARMS President/CEO Daniel Borschke, CAE. “In theory, speakers and panels could also take questions in real time from the audience.” Members of the trade association will also be able to follow Borschke’s thoughts and NARMS’ happenings throughout the year by following @narms. Borschke can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dborschke (@dborschke) NARMS hosts a short video created by Common Craft to explain Twitter at http://www.narms.com/twitter.html .

NARMS has been using Twitter since June, 2008 to supplement its JobBank and The Recruiter, tweeting out jobs in real time to reps. Over 2,100 people and growing now follow http://twitter.com/narmsjobs (@narmsjobs).

Best Buy: Quarter better than expected

Best Buy’s fourth quarter was better than anticipated even though profits were down from a year ago amid an economic downturn. The company also noted that the quarter ended stronger than it began, indicating that consumer spending stabilized. And the Circuit City liquidation certainly didn’t hurt Best Buy’s cause.

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RFID’s Widening Gyre

Two recent news items about retail giants, radio-frequency ID tags and promotional displays have pundits punning and some market vultures vultching:

When Procter & Gamble declared it would no longer apply EPC/RFID tags to promotional displays built for Walmart stores, it triggered critiques of the technology and its underlying economics. Observers circling above the decaying carcass of the program sniffed that just maybe, Walmart wasn’t delivering a measurable benefit from the solution.

Within days Walgreen Drug Stores delivered a more positive spin, stating that the very same sort of radio-frequency tags had helped it improve its in‐store execution in the past year “to nearly double the industry average.”

Never mind that the industry average stinks like carrion.

David Van Howe, vice president of purchasing for Walgreens, called the information captured from the tagged displays a “game changer” for the chain, and at least one partner, Revlon, said the program delivered “unprecedented insight into what works and what doesn’t with consumers.”

So what are we to take away from all this? The vultures in our midst keep trying to declare retail RFID dead on arrival. The tech pundits claim they have seen a glorious future in those tiny transponders. I say the misdirected focus on RFID technology threatens to derail an important initiative.

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Globalshop observations from The (Digital Signage) Man (of the Year)

As I mentioned earlier in the week, our very own Keith Kelsen took part in two different panels at this year’s Globalshop in Vegas. Here’s what he had to say:

The Best Practices for Digital Signage Content in Retail panel was a huge success. The key take-aways for this audience were that digital signage:

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Supervalu Makes Meals Easy

Supermarket retailer Supervalu Inc. has launched “Simply Good Meals,” branded destinations within its stores offering ingredients and recipes for quick meals in one spot.

More than 1,300 Supervalu store locations under banners including Acme, Albertsons, bigg’s, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Jewel-Osco, Lucky, Shaw’s/Star Market, Shop ‘n Save and Shoppers Food & Pharmacy will…

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Best Buy Increases Revenues and Profits

Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co. reported increased revenues and gross profits, along with lower net earnings and operating income, in its Q4 and fiscal year 2008 financial statements. However, Best Buy is showing signs it has already started capitalizing on a domestic competitive landscape that has been cleared of chief rivals Circuit City and Tweeter. Highlights from the quarter and year follow.

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KFC Tackles Potholes

Following a number of recent fast food retailer promotions involving the internet, new menu items and updated store designs, fast food chicken retailer KFC is launching a pilot promotional infrastructure renewal program.

KFC is sponsoring efforts to fill up potholes in five U.S. cities, starting with Louisville, KY, where the company’s corporate headquarters are located. As part of the promotion, KFC issued an open letter to the mayors of other U.S. cities, inviting them to describe problems with their roads. The retailer will pick four random responses and then help those cities repair potholes. Each repaired pothole will be stenciled with “Re-freshed by KFC” in non-permanent chalk.

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