2007

By Bettina Arndt Ref: The Adelaide Advertiser April 13 2007 It was a natural food shop filled with the displays of fruit and vegetables, baskets of wheat germ and other items pulsing with natural goodness. They sold only one brand of bubbly water, proudly labelled �organic mineral water�. Organic water? What on earth does that […]

No peeking, Scholastic, the US publisher of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows,’ the final book in the series by J.K Rowling, has set strict rules for libraries handling the book. Among them: Libraries must limit the number of emplyees who handle the books before the July 21 release, and provide names and contact information

I recently had a coffee with Trevor Cochrane, half of the highly successful Australian Garden Guru�s team. If you are not aware on the Guru�s you can check out their website www.thegardengurus.tv Whilst we were discussing trends in the gardening industry Trevor also commented on the amazing increase in the popularity of knitting. Well, this

Having informed you about the great time Californian retailers are having, the same is true in the UK. Horticulture Week, 22 March 07, indicates garden centres are up in sales by about 10% bringing them in line with the 2003 season. Some garden centres are recording sales 20% up over last year.

The debate on the sustainability has, in Western Australia, moved to carrots. Maggie Lilith, Salinity and Rural Liaison Officer, reports in the magazine �Greener Times� (March 2007) that it takes 325 litres of water to produce $1.00 of carrots. 65% of water used in WA goes to agriculture and horticulture and we are experiencing our

Last year I wrote an article on the trend in Pop Up retailing. This is where a retailer sets up a business for a few weeks, trades and then closes down and moves to another location. Obviously, pop up retailing is very popular with sports and events, where the retailer has a large, captive audience

The aim of any retailer is to maximise their profits by obtaining the maximum gross profit in relation to the maximum stock turn. Pricing a product and putting it on the shelf to gather dust is the role of a �caretaker� not a retailer. The role of a retailer is to create some urgency in

Over the last couple of decades we have been told that globalisation is the way forward. Retailing became international and China became the world�s factory, but the tide is beginning to change and now is the era of ‘Neighbour to Neighbour’ marketing. It is time to promote local. Consumers are becoming more concerned with the

I was recently having breakfast in a restaurant in Johannesburg South Africa. Whilst enjoying my morning caffine shot a police BMW car drove up at around 25km an hour with blue lights flashing. Like every other diner I was puzzled and slightly amused at what was happening. Three burly policemen came out and walked through

One of the most commonly debatable subjects in my workshops is the role of a guarantee. There are those that think they are essential and those that believe they are the curse of retailing and that the consumer always abuses them. In my view a guarantee is part of the marketing budget and should be