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Retailers Prepare as Hurricane Earl Takes Aim at the East Coast

Found in: Natural Disasters, New Jersey, News & Observations
Wednesday
September 1, 2010
1 Comment
Photo from flickr user NASA Goddard Photo and Video

Hurricane Earl is churning in the Atlantic and retailers are getting ready as well as offering advice to customers on how to prepare for the storm. The storm is threatening the entire Mid-Atlantic and Northeast portions of the United States as well as Nova Scotia. Residents in these areas should be going to their local stores and stocking up on the recommended supplies.

As expected, residents in North Carolina are getting ready for the storm and retailers are seeing a surge in customers. From the article:

“We have just definitely seen an increase in customer traffic it started yesterday a little bit but over today they’ve been moving with the batteries and tarps and flashlights and things like that,” said store manager Robert Evans.

The storm is only about 24 hours from impacting the Outer Banks and I hope that anyone who hasn’t evacuated is just about finished hunkering down for the next few days.

Almost two years ago, I noted how well Home Depot was using Twitter to communicate advice and store opening/closing information during Hurricane Gustav. This season has not been any different as they are offering great tips for residents who are preparing for the storm through their Twitter feed and their blog. The retailer has an entire section of their site dedicated to hurricane preparation with helpful videos and articles. Of course this drives traffic back to the retailer, but it also provides good information and knowledge to shoppers.

Having a disaster plan is important for any small business and Office Depot has offered advice to small businesses who are in the path of the storm.

Shortly, I’m going to follow this post up with a second post sharing some more, localized information about how businesses are preparing for the storm. I’m not very far from the Atlantic Ocean, along the coast of New Jersey, and I have a few notes that I’d like to share.

The next 24 hours are going to be a crucial time to watch this storm. Depending on the exact path that it takes, this could become a very bad Labor Day weekend along the East Coast.

Macy's cutting 7,000 jobs

Found in: Current Events
Monday
February 2, 2009
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Another reduction in the retail workforce: this time it is Macy’s announcing a 4% reduction in their workforce, slashing 7,000 jobs. 5,100 of those are at the store level.

“Reducing our workforce is an unfortunate outcome of the current economic environment, and I am frustrated that so many of our people will be unable to move forward with us as we proceed into a very exciting future for Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s,” Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren said in a statement.

The retailer estimates the restructuring efforts will reduce previously planned expenses by about $400 million a year beginning in 2010.

This is the latest in a line of retail layoffs – last week Home Depot, Starbucks, Williams-Sonoma, and Target all announced layoffs. Best Buy has also announced that they will be cutting workforce in their corporate headquarters later this month.

More Retail Layoffs

Found in: Bankruptcy, Store Openings & Closings
Monday
January 26, 2009
1 Comment

With the disappointing Holiday season behind us, the layoffs and retail store closings are continuing to mount:

Today, Home Depot has announced that they are closing their line of Expo home design centers and trimming support staff, resulting in 7,000 reduction in staff. With both home sales and the economy down, shoppers aren’t looking for high end home design solutions right now. The retailer is quick to note that the layoffs will not impact any customer service positions at the Home Depot proper chain.

It appears that their Expo stores weren’t performing well during the housing boom, so it’s no surprise that they would be doing even worse during the current economic conditions.

Another victim of the housing slump is Williams-Sonoma. On Friday, the retailer announced an 18% reduction in their workforce. In addition to stores being effected by the layoffs, the retailer will also close a call center in Pennsylvania and a distribution center in Memphis. I think the high end housewares stores have been hurt badly by both the economic downturn and mid-market retailers like JCPenney and Kohl’s.

Starbucks, who closed 600 stores in 2008, is expected to eliminate 1,000 jobs at their corporate headquarters and reducing district managers and field employees. The published report, prepared by investment firm McAdams Wright Ragen, speculates that these layoffs will happen in early February and won’t effect store-level barista positions.

And don’t forget that last week Circuit City announced that they are closing all US operations with job losses effecting up to 35,000 people.

Most Popular Posts of 2008

Found in: Industry News, Retail, Site News
Wednesday
December 31, 2008
No Comments

I just took a look through my statistics for the year and have compiled a list of the most popular posts here on No Turn On Red. Looks like the real-time information provided by retailers via Twitter was the breakout topic that I wrote about this year.

Happy New Year to all my readers. May we all be surprised and see 2009 turn into a brighter year than we are all expecting! Thanks to everyone who visits, reads, and shares information from this blog. I do appreciate the readership!

Target, Home Depot, Best Buy Donate to Gustav Relief Efforts

Found in: Natural Disasters
Wednesday
September 3, 2008
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More announcements from retailers offering assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav:

Best Buy, with eight stores in the affected region, has announced that customers can donate to the American Red Cross through all of the stores nationally through September 30, 2008. The retailer will also match donations up to $1 million.

Home Depot has announced it has donated $300,000 to the American Red Cross, in addition to $500,000 that the retailer donated to employees who were affected by the storm.

Finally, Target has announced a variety of relief efforts. They’re donating $300,000 in product relief packages assembled by volunteers and delegates from the Republican National Convention. The retailer has also given the American Red Cross access to their store in Convington, LA for use as an emergency operations center, and are allowing the Salvation Army to use a vacant store in Dallas, TX to store supplies.