Retailing

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CALIF. — GetPlugged.com, the consumer electronics e-commerce and marketing portal, has added an Infinity Virtual Showroom to it site that showcases the...

NEW YORK — The use of interactive product simulations to sell or provide instruction in the use of CE devices received a ringing endorsement...

PHILADELPHIA — Philips Consumer Electronics, North America (PCENA) has tapped CE/majap distributor Almo Corp. to handle the logistics of its premium and incentive operation....

WAYNE, N.J. — JVC Company of America has revamped its Web site with a new look and expanded features to further its branding effort...

Appliance and electronics buying group Associated Volume Buyers (AVB) has implemented a new online product ordering option for its member dealers, while fellow buying...

RICHMOND, VA. — Going out of business sales are in full swing at Heilig-Meyers’ 346 stores. The process is being handled by a partnership...

Traditional market research attempts to predict consumer behavior by asking consumers what they will do, and/or by making assumptions about their likely behavior based...

ORLANDO, FLA. — Despite dismal sales and earnings by the nation’s major majap makers, and double-digit declines in monthly factory shipments, dealers and manufacturers...

ORLANDO, FLA. — Within the past year, Internet-enabled appliances have moved from high-concept prototypes to high-end products ready for rollout. Among manufacturers with target...

I’m not sure what the lead-in for this column should be. It could be “Old soldiers never die,” or some reference to “The Night...

Faced with a slowdown in consumer spending this year and continuously aggressive competition from national chains, the industry’s buying groups remain optimistic that their...

ARLINGTON, VA. — CEA president/CEO Gary Shapiro emphasized the benefits the CE industry brings to the environment, but warned against new, short-term programs that...

MILLTOWN, N.J. — April was a busy month for The Wiz, the New York metro area CE specialty chain. Besides breaking its first major...

LYNDURST, N.J. — Harvey Electronics, the high-end, New York metro area CE specialty chain, said its sales rose 13.8 percent to $17.2 million for...

NEW YORK — The blue light is back at Kmart, which unveiled a revamped BlueLight Special campaign earlier this month. Chairman/CEO Charles Conaway joined...

NEW YORK — RightFreight, a company founded in 1999 that has developed a collaborative logistics platform to track parts and inventory from the manufacturing...

CHICAGO Six years after buying Pennsylvania’s Bryn Mawr Stereo & Video and exactly one year after acquiring Chicago’s United Audio Centers, Tweeter has laid...

CHICAGO — Best Buy and Target took home top awards for their innovative advertisements from the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA) here in...

CANTON, MASS. — Tweeter Home Entertainment Group has reached an agreement in principle to acquire Charlotte, N.C.-based SMK Marketing Inc., which operates three Audio...

The TWICE Top 5: Best-Selling Products At Retail/Based on January 2001 unit sales FLOOR CARE

Depending upon whether or not your sales volume includes payments received for product installation and repair, employee payroll expenses can absorb 50 percent or...

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. -A 20th anniversary is a significant milestone for any business, but reaching it within the rough-and-tumble extended warranty sector, as VAC Service...

SAN FRANCISCO -Good Guys said its net and comparable-store sales were up 6 percent for the five-month period ended Feb. 28, with total revenue...

HOFFMAN ESTATES, ILL. -Sears will fulfill service contracts for defunct retail chain Montgomery Ward under an agreement with Aon Innovative Solutions, the St. Louis-based...

EDEN PRAIRIE, MINN. -Best Buy is looking to get more bang out of its advertising and display bucks with a new software program that...

Statistically speaking, when is what is shown to be down actually up? It happens when you don’t have all the relevant numbers. And that...

E-Tail Sales Soar To $26B WASHINGTON, D.C. —Consumers, apparently ignoring the slowing economy and reports of a dot-com meltdown, made $25.8 billion in online...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. -Consumer electronics suppliers who attended the NATM Buying Group meeting volunteered their own opinions on the first quarter and beyond,...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. -NATM president Jerry Throgmartin, executive director Bill Trawick and operations director Ernie Olson outlined some changes in NATM practices and...

For all it’s ferocity, the e-commerce contraction that has claimed the lives of CE pioneers etown.com, electronics.net, Everything For Less, Onsale.com and Value America-and...

SEATTLE -With 15 percent of its sales volume now coming from custom installs, Magnolia Hi-Fi only foresees this amount growing in the future. The...

BRISBANE, CALIF. -Walmart.com has pink-slipped 24 staffers, or 10 percent of its work force, as part of a companywide retooling in the wake of...

Let me begin by saying that I love technology, or at least CE and information/computing technology. While I am not compelled to get the...

As a veteran showgoer, I can safely say that the 2001 International CES was one for the books on a number of fronts. First-and...

The surge in sales of new digital products is boosting sales of service contracts and extended warranties, according to a handful of third-party service...

JEFFERSONVILLE, IND. -Adding another Internet-based third-party service administrator to the mix, Service Net Inc. launched its website-eservicentral.com-last month. The site, which is available to...

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -Appliance distributor Marty Friedman, president of Eastern Marketing Corp., takes the podium at P.C. Richard & Son’s new state-of-the-art training amphitheater at...

KANSAS CITY, KAN.-Nebraska Furniture Mart, the acclaimed mega-merchant founded by the late, great Rose Blumkin in 1937 and acquired by Berkshire Hathaway head Warren...

NEW YORK -Here2fix, an online third-party provider of product protection plans to retailers, e-tailers and catalog merchants, was chosen by buy.com to provide a...

How does one describe the plight of today’s independent CE retailer without sounding as if we’re shouting that the sky is falling? That’s the...

TWICE:What are the biggest challenges facing you and the industry? LINTON: Best Buy has a mission and a vision and that’s that we make...