Articles By Anna Rose Welch

  1. CVS Predicts Obamacare Will Be Good For Business 11/19/2013

    CVS reported a strong third quarter, with earnings climbing 25 percent because of improving pharmacy benefits management (PBM) business. Revenue for the company increased nearly 6 percent, to roughly $32 billion, and revenue from the PMB side of business rose 8 percent, to $19.5 billion in the quarter. The company expects more growth in the future, regardless of the changes in the healthcare environment being brought about by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly referred to as Obamacare, and private exchanges. Indeed, CVS CEO Larry Merlo says that he expects these changes will only positively benefit the company in the long run.

  2. Walmart Looks To Draw Customers In During A Challenging Holiday Season 11/15/2013

    For its third quarter, Walmart reported that net sales were up 1.6 percent to $114.9 billion, while revenue increased $1.9 billion, or 1.7 percent over last year, reaching $115.7 billion. However, regardless of these increases, the company’s CEO Bill Simon expects the holiday shopping period “is going to be about as competitive of a market as we’ve ever seen. Incomes are going down, while food costs, gas and energy prices — while abating — are still eating up a big piece of customer budgets.”

  3. Office Depot Finalizes Merger, Appoints New CEO 11/15/2013

    The newly minted Office Depot, product of the long-planned OfficeMax and Office Depot merger, announced that it has hired former Delhaize American and Wendy’s CEO, Ronald Smith, as the company’s new CEO. The $1.2 billion merger was finalized on November 5th.   OfficeMax CEO, Ravi Saligram and Office Depot CEO, Neil Austrian each assumed the position of co-CEO of the new company as the search committee evaluated over 100 qualified applicants. Upon Smith’s appointment one week following the merger, Saligram and Austrian resigned their posts.

  4. Barnes & Noble Emphasizes In-Store Shopping With Launch Of “Discovery Friday” 11/14/2013

    Barnes & Noble joins the ranks of a great number of other retailers that are starting the holiday season early this year. On Friday, November 22, one week before Black Friday, Barnes & Noble will be holding its first-ever “Discovery Friday” event, featuring games, giveaways, storytelling, and guest appearances. The company is launching this event in order to connect with customers right before the busy holiday shopping season begins. On Discovery Friday, customers will be able to meet one-on-one with B&N associates to pick their brains about the perfect gifts to get for those difficult-to-buy-for family members and friends.

  5. Amazon And U.S. Postal Service Team Up For Sunday Delivery 11/14/2013

    Amazon recently announced that it has partnered with the U.S. Postal Service in order to implement Sunday deliveries. While this was once a luxury for which customers had to pay extra shipping fees, the Postal Service announced it now will be delivering packages at regular rates on Sundays. This initiative is being implemented immediately in Los Angeles and New York — just in time for the holidays — and will be spreading to the rest of the nation in 2014.

  6. Sport Chalet's Omni-Channel Initiatives Partially Ease 2nd Quarter Burdens 11/13/2013

    In the midst of a numerous declines in the second quarter, Sport Chalet experienced a 32.4 percent surge in online sales, suggesting the company’s omni-channel strategies are paying off. Craig Levra, Sport Chalet CEO, acknowledges the declines during the quarter, saying, “Our second quarter had a disappointing start, as sales trends were weak in July and August, but turned positive in September on a comparable basis. Sales trends have continued to improve as we progressed into the fall, and our Team Sales Division is also beginning to move into positive territory.”

  7. H&M Amps Up Store Appearance, Embraces Technology 11/13/2013

    H&M plans to offer customers a new, high-tech brand experience this week with the opening of its flagship store at 4 Times Square. The flagship store — equipped with 300 employees, 44 fitting rooms, 24 cash registers, and longer hours of operation 7 days a week — is set up to manage high volume traffic and sales. The company and brokers alike both expect this pricy investment in Times Square will pay off, considering stores in that location often have higher sales volume.

  8. Gap Pushes Internationally And Online For Growth 11/12/2013

    Since reporting a somewhat weak Q2’13, Gap has had its eye on improving sales for Q3’13, reporting Friday that its net sales have grown 3 percent and same-store sales have grown 1 percent, compared to Q3’12. The company also saw a 4 percent increase in same-store sales during October, foreshadowing a successful Q3’13 report, which will be released in full on November 21st.

  9. E-Commerce Sales Hit $3.2 billion 11/12/2013

    On Friday, November 8th, American Internet analytics company, comScore, released its estimates for Q3’13 desktop-based retail e-commerce sales. The company reported more evidence that e-commerce in retail continues to dominate, with sales for the quarter growing 13 percent year-over-year to $47.5 billion. This marks the 16th consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth, and the 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

  10. Walmart Website Glitch Prompts Truly Unbelievable Deals 11/11/2013

    On the morning of November 6th, Christmas came early for Walmart.com customers when a site glitch promoted unrealistically low prices for traditionally expensive items like video games, televisions, and certain toys. For example, a treadmill that normally costs $600 showed up on sale for $33.16. LCD computer screen monitors went for $9.