Retail Stores

Coming soon to your local Wal-Mart: more craft beer. In another sign that the fast-growing segment is going mainstream, the nation's largest retailer and biggest beer seller is planning to add shelf space to accommodate more craft brews, former Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott told distributors this week at their annual convention in Las Vegas.

Armed with savvy shopping skills and a renewed focus on value, consumers this holiday season will shop at a variety of locations and channels as they scope out ways to get the best bang for their buck.

Retailers taking advantage of marketing in the digital world might see more of a benefit at the check-out counter. The NYU Stern School of Business Center for Measurable Marketing joined social media monitoring company Crimson Hexagon to complete a recent study that revealed a positive correlation between social media and store traffic.

Impulse purchases require people to browse the aisles, but that’s happening less these days because web-savvy consumers often already know what they plan to buy and simply pick it up and leave, said Bill Martin, chief executive officer of ShopperTrak.  

A new research report, 2011 Temkin Trust Ratings, examines the level of trust that consumers have in 143 large U.S. companies. The research is based on a survey of 6,000 U.S. consumers, who rated their recent customer service interactions with companies across 12 industries. Only eight companies earned "very strong" ratings while 26 earned "very weak" ratings.

Wal-Mart expects toys to be best-sellers this holiday season as its toy prices are lower than competitors Target and Kmart, according to a Bloomberg Industries analysis.

For the first time in its history, luxury conglomerate LVMH has provided a peek into its exclusive workshops, design showrooms and wine cellars to reveal the hundreds of hands and delicate workmanship behind its expensive brands. Seeking to "reveal the true nature of high quality," according to LVMH, the company opened up 25 of its brands to the public on Oct. 15 and 16.

Just as Steve Jobs transformed the notion of the personal computer and the cellphone, he left an indelible stamp on architecture, especially the retail kind, traditionally a backwater of the profession.

FEED Projects' mission is to create good products that help feed the world. Men's apparel retailer Bonobos has teamed with FEED Projects to donate $40 to the World Food Programme for every pair of Bonobos FEED pants purchased.

Despite an economy that has many Americans on pins and needles, consumers were spending in September. According to the National Retail Federation, retail sales increased 0.4 percent from August and a better-than-expected 5.7 percent over last September, as shoppers continued to show strength during a weak economic recovery.