The second half of last week was crazy busy for me. Let me catch up on a few of the stories I missed last week:
Fendi sues Wal-Mart over sales of fake handbags:
Italian fashion group Fendi S.R.L. sued Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
in U.S. federal court on Friday, accusing the world’s largest retailer of selling counterfeit handbags and passing them off as genuine at its Sam’s Club warehouse stores. Sam’s Club stores in California, New York, Florida and other states sold knock off handbags, wallets and key chains that were identified as “genuine” Fendi products, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
The suit by Fendi said that Wal-Mart has never purchased its products and never asked Fendi if any of the items bearing its trademark were genuine.
Having never stepped foot into a Sam’s Club, I’m suprised to even imagine that they would carry any Fendi products. This suit will be interesting to watch to see where the blame, if any, lies within Wal-Mart. Is this the case of an over-zealous buyer making sure they’re meeting “always low prices” or is this the case of Fendi not happy that their goods somehow ended up in Sam’s Club?
Good coverage in the comments over at Wake Up Walmart
More about the changes at Federated as the September transition to the Macy’s brand approaches. Here’s the rundown: Macy’s is the brand that people response to the most nationally, even if people in this article are negative about the loss of their regional department stores. Expect less promotions and increased private-label and exclusive offerings, as well as stores tailored to the region that they are in, so that Federated can maintain some of the things that people loved about all of the chains that they’ve swallowed up. Very informative article, though.
And lastly, two food-related quickies about two different chains who are being compared to Starbucks:
First is Dunkin Donuts, who are obviously competiting in the same space as Starbucks (in the sense that they both sell coffee). Boston.com has an article outlining the future growth plans of this chain. The plan calls for 15,000 U.S. locations in 2020, up from 5,000 today, and this will be done through a variety of store layouts and prototype as well as increased product offerings to drive afternoon business.
Is this all being done in an effort to compete with Starbucks? Not so much, it seems. As a loyal dunkin Donuts coffee drinker, I think that as much as these two brands concentrate around the same product (coffee), there is not too much overlap in their philosophy and themes, so I can see both of them co-existing pretty well in the world we live in. Seriously, though, whoever thought that there will be a day that we will live in a world with tens of thousands of locations of the same two stores?
The other eatery being compared to Starbucks doesn’t deal with coffee, but instead deals with ice cream.
USA Today has an article outlining the future growth of Cold Stone Creamery and the ice cream business in general. Two quotes that sum up this article really well are the following:
Cold Stone doesn’t just sell sundaes and sorbet, it sells sizzle. “It’s like Starbucks for kids,” says George Carey, president of Just Kid, a consulting firm.
and
An industry that once sold ice cream now is selling an ice cream experience.
Tonight I went to Friendly’s to get a large Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup sundae. I’m not concerned with the experience, I just want good ice cream. But with that said, it will be very hard for me to resist the new Cold Stone Creamery that they are building three minutes from my house.
That’s all I got tonight.