Green seems be to new buzz world in the retail industry, and more and more customers are requesting “green” products.  Which is a good, both for our ecosystem and economy as a whole; but how do you know if a product is truly “green”? Many companies advertise they are using a truly “green” product, simply because they use a more environmentally friendly ingredient than before. While they may be on the right path to achieving a truly “green” product, until there is certification all the company has is a statement not a fact.We at McCue take pride in upholding our word and have the certification to back our statements. In case you are in doubt if our new GreenGuard bumper is truly “green” take a closer look and you will see a laser etched 7 with chasing arrows on the side of the bumper, denoting it can be easily recycled. Further more, look at our SCS certification; certifying GreenGuard is made from a minimum 93% of pre-consumer polycarbonate. Not only is polycarbonate a PVC free plastic, it’s also a much stronger plastic (30% stronger than PVC).    If you are looking for a truly “green” product that can contribute to LEED credit points and has certification to back the statements, look no further. McCue takes pride in taking care of the environment and wants to ensure you are receiving the highest quality product, that’s why we invented GreenGuard. So remember next time you are looking for a “green” product, look or ask for the certification to make sure you are getting a truly “green” product, not an imitation.

There are many things that kids take for granted as they grow up. For some it’s the toys that they got or the education they received. For others it’s the wacky loving family that was always in their business ensuring that they knew right for wrong. Although I am sure that I could have appreciated all of those things more, there is one part about my childhood that I know I didn’t even come close to valuing as much as I should have….the yummy home made dinner that magically appeared on my plate every night.

It wasn’t until I moved out and purchased a home of my own did the reality of the situation hit me like a ton of bricks. Not only did I have no idea how to cook, work and other responsibilities left me little to no time to learn! Not to mention the fact that I had no idea how expensive it was to make all those delicious meals from scratch. I tried to revert back to my college days of macaroni and cheese and soup from a can, but my pallet had definitely matured. I also soon found out that ordering out every night wasn’t having the best effect on my wallet or my waistline.

My only hope was to return to my local grocery store in hopes that I could find something easy to make, nutritious and less expensive than take out. I was so afraid I was going to have to settle for the quintessential frozen dinner which didn’t appeal to me in the least! Very much to my surprise there were TONS of options from steam and serve entrée’s to gigantic salad bars and pre-made sushi. I found myself at the grocery store a few times a week picking out yummy things that I could easily take home and prepare within minutes. Going to the grocery store was better than take out! I had more options and spent less money (not to mention the fact that I started fitting into my old wardrobe again!!).

So to all you “twenty something’s” out there, put down that take out menu and take a trip to your local grocery store. Its not mom’s home made cooking but it’s a fast, easy, healthful substitute until your next visit home to stock up on some grub!!

If we consider the current economic situation, we can expect some things to change in our everyday life. Recently, I’ve been looking out for these little trends as it pertains to my own routine as well. People are thinking more and more about their purchases, which has a substantial effect on our economy. While it appears this would be bad for most retail stores and consumerism in general, I also have noticed more people in the supermarket. So as people begin to compensate for expenses they wouldn’t normally have to think about, they begin to look for ways to cut costs. So what is the biggest trend that we can see in the retail world? People are not going out to dinner as often, and going to the supermarket to get dinner. My previous life was in the restaurant business and I still know and speak to a handfull of people there. They have all said the same thing…. WE ARE SO SLOW!

Customers are buying and making dinner with the family and not taking the family out. This has also sparked a startling discovery: the average American doesn’t know how to cook. So how are supermarkets adapting? Offering Recipes, Meal Guides, Cooking Instructions, and prepackaged and prepared foods are on the rise in your everyday supermarket.

How many times as a Sales rep have you walked in to a meeting with a Retailer and heard them say, “as a company we are looking to cut our costs next year”? Well if your hand isn’t up then I would like to talk to you after class! If I had a nickel for every time I heard about cutting costs………………oh forget it!

During these times of material increases, fuel surcharges, and increased labor rates every company is looking for ways to cut cost and increase margins. It seems to me that the first way they look to accomplish this task is by getting their suppliers to lower their price! Well this usually leads to a win-loss situation at both ends of the spectrum. For the supplier, in order to lower their price they may have to cut back on the quality of the product being produced, ultimately cheapening the product and decreasing it’s shelf life (total cost of ownership people!). No savings there for the retailer! For the Retailer, they may get the desired price they are looking for at the expense of the Supplier’s margins. Thus possibly pushing them out of business in the near future. No product from that Supplier anymore!

Well as I was walking one of my Retailer’s stores last week looking for better ways to help them protect their stores, it finally dawned on me! I can solve this solution of cutting costs in my space of total store protection by consolidating their vendors and installing the product myself (well not me but our Field Service reps). The next time your in one of your retailers store, count how many vendors they are using starting in the parking lot and working to the back room. They have vendors for cart corrals, bollards, fixtures, refrigeratoin, lighting, signage, hvac, etc. Not enough fingers on both hands to count how many vendors are helping build a store! Well that means several PO’s, multiple deliveries, managing orders and ultimately getting these products installed. Sounds like alot of cost doesn’t it……well it is! Add the cost if the product isn’t installed properly then the fixture gets damaged, and the dollars start to add up quick!

So the next time your buyer tells you that they are looking to save cost, tell them you have a possible solution! Consolidation of vendors can ultimately lead to cost savings.

There are mushroom farms in Pennsylvania? Pepper farms in Massachusetts? Who knew I could learn so much just by wandering the fresh produce section of my local Whole Foods? As it turns out, it isn’t just Whole Foods who is labeling where their food originates…

On August 31st, 2008 the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law went into effect. As a result, supermarkets have six months (until April 2009) to comply with the USDA law and label the country of origin for “beef, veal, lamb, chicken, pork, goat, wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, peanuts, pecans, ginseng, and macadamia nuts.” Now consumers will know where some of their food actually originates.

The COOL law doesn’t apply to all products. Processed foods, mixed foods (ex: trail mix), and a litany of other foods aren’t covered by this legislation such as sausage which comes from a variety of sources (i.e. “mystery meat”). A full list of products not covered by the new law can be seen at the FAQ link at the bottom of the page.

The benefits of this new law are many:

1. There is now transparency and traceability on the foods we eat. If there are health and safety problems like we had earlier this summer with Jalapeño peppers, it makes it easier to determine the root cause and easier to protect the consumer.
2. For an environmentally-minded consumer, products made locally have a smaller environmental impact than those made thousands of miles away in another country.
3. Finally, from an economic standpoint, COOL allows U.S. consumer to support domestic farmers and ranchers.

For more information visit the USDA.gov website and take a look at the COOL FAQ: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5071922

Last week, I was looking at a new refrigerator for my apartment. I went to a few different vendors looking for a unit that would fit my specifications.  Finding the product wasn’t all that difficult but it was very hard to find a distributor who offered installation. I wasn’t so hung up on an adequate price rather an installation plan that would be convenient for me. I needed someone who would remove my broken refrigerator and install the new one without any hiccups. Most of the smaller vendors I went to couldn’t provide this type of support. It wasn’t until I went to a Sears superstore that I could get an installation option. So I made the purchase and my refrigerator was installed a few days later. I was impressed by the level of service and customer care that came from such a large retailer. Obviously, management at Sears is doing something right in creating a total solution package to address the needs of their customers.  Personally, I was twice as likely to pay for a product that was hassle free and didn’t require me to make additional arrangements for an install.  The lesson learned from my adventures in refrigerator buying is that I believe consumers are more likely to purchase from a retailer when services, installation, and repair are readily available.Best Buy already offers similar installation/repair services with automotive sound systems, home theater, and home networking solutions.  For Best Buy this strategy seems to be a solid idea.  In a 2008 press release, they state that their “services revenue category recorded a 4.1% comparable store sales gain due primarily to sales growth in home theater installation and computer services…”  In the past few months a variety of big retailers have begun to offer more services for their products including Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart is teaming up with Dell to include in-store kiosks in 15 test stores throughout Texas that offer repairs, upgrades, and other types of technology integration.  Wal-Mart hopes that a partnership with Dell will be a significant move to competing with Best Buy for consumer electronics.

I’m glad I didn’t have to wrestle my new refrigerator up three flights of stairs or take the doors off the old one and haul it off to the dump. It was all done efficiently and with a certain level of professionalism that I could only expect from adequately trained personnel. I am happy to see more and more companies move towards integrated product services to better help their customers make smooth purchases.

Every health magazine will tell you the same thing: don’t go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. More likely to purchase expensive and unhealthy impulse products, shopping on an empty stomach can cost you – and your waist – a fortune! Unfortunately for us in the retail industry, there is another critical warning: never read a trade magazine on an empty stomach. After several years here at McCue, I have finally begun following my own advice, which is to NEVER, EVER open one of those trade magazines when I’m hungry. An innocent act of “catching up on what’s happening” in Supermarket News quickly turns to an obsession with “what do I want to eat tonight?” and “wow, do those new candy bars/pasta salads/hamburgers look DELICIOUS!” Before I know it, I’m off to the grocery store… hungry, inspired and ready to spend.

I’m not sure how much the retail industry relies on this impulse shopping which is a result of these publications, but I DO know one thing: from now on, there is a strict ‘only after a meal’ policy in MY office when it comes to catching up on what’s new in our world.

We’ve all seen it, a mom with a rambunctious little one in the shopping cart waiting for any chance to stand up in her seat and reach for that cereal box while mom’s not looking.  Or little Mikey jumping around in the shopping basket while big brother hangs on the side of the cart pulling it onto two wheels.  What you hopefully haven’t seen is what comes next.

Every year,  According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), over 24,000 shopping cart related injuries are reported by emergency rooms,  “the most frequent cause is a fall from a shopping cart, with injury caused by a cart tip-over being second.”  What makes this even scarier is that 75% of these injuries are to the head or neck of the child.  Even with parents close by, serious injury can be caused from a fall from as little as 3 feet above the ground in as little at 2.5 seconds (the time it takes for a child to stand up in the shopping cart seat)

Good Morning America featured a piece on keeping children safe in shopping carts in which they referenced two measures parents and retailers could take to ensure child safety in carts.  The first was to ensure that child restraints are available and used in carts and secondly it is recommended that parents and retailers use “carts with safer designs that allow children to ride closer to the ground – for example, in a small model car in front of the cart.”

From the data we collected and the shopper responses we got, we determined that a customer would need to walk only 8 spaces or less to return a cart to a corral from anywhere in the parking lot. So for a parking lot of say 452 parking spaces, there should be 14 cart corrals appropriately placed so the customers only need walk 8 parking spaces to the nearest cart corral.

What we want to know is, “Does this still hold water?” Has anyone else done research on voluntary cart return and come up with different facts? If you have or if you’ve read anything about this subject matter please take a couple of minutes to post a reply to this posting and share your information with our online community.

Metro Group, Germany’s largest retailer and a pioneer when it comes to technology in retail, considers one of the most important technology innovations in retail is what is called the Mobile Shopping Assistant (MSA), a software application that turns a customer’s cell phone into a scanning and information device.  Using their phone’s auto-focus camera, shoppers can scan products as they shop keeping a running total.  Adding additional convenience, the MSA can also be used to tap into the Internet and find specific products in a store, call up product information or to develop shopping lists.  The MSA is similar to handheld devices used by U.S. retailers like Stop & Shop and Food Lion but the big difference is that the MSA system uses the shopper’s own cell phone whereas the handheld devices are provided to shoppers by the retailers.

Once finished shopping, shoppers can go to a special check-out lane and use cell phones configured for Near Field Communication (NFC) to make a payment by simply holding their cell phone near a detection device according to Cara Hopkins of SuperMarket News. How cool is that!