Sears Was the Amazon of Its Time—Until It Made Preventable Mistakes
Sears’s playbook both explains and predicts the awe-inspiring (and, occasionally, confusion-inspiring) strategy of Jeff Bezos and his Seattle juggernaut. But as much as Amazon’s leaders can learn about their own company … Continue reading
Shinola: The Real History of America’s Most Authentic Fake Brand
A mogul from Texas is using the country’s least aspirational city as the backdrop for his next global lifestyle company–a $225 million experiment in manufactured authenticity. I’m inside the rooftop … Continue reading
The Upwardly Mobile Barista at Starbucks
Starbucks and Arizona State University are collaborating to help cafe workers get college degrees. Is this a model for helping more Americans reach the middle class? In their announcement, Starbucks … Continue reading
Starbucks to encourage baristas to discuss race relations with customers
Starbucks published a full page ad in the New York Timeson Sunday — a stark, black, page with a tiny caption “Shall We Overcome?” in the middle, and the words … Continue reading
The Aging of Abercrombie & Fitch
Engaged Capital, a hedge fund that owns a small stake in Abercrombie, issued a public letter in December 2013 calling for Jeffries’s resignation and for the company to consider putting … Continue reading
Why CVS Isn’t Selling Cigarettes Anymore
CVS’s 800 MinuteClinics are the country’s largest provider of retail health care, and its staff does everything from writing prescriptions to providing vaccinations. The company’s decision reveals the tension many … Continue reading
The Wal-Mart Slayer: How Publix’s People-First Culture Is Winning The Grocer War
Family-run Publix is both the largest employee-owned company and the most profitable grocer in America. Those two facts are linked, and they might be the formula for fending off Bentonville’s … Continue reading
D.C. Council approves ‘living wage’ bill over Wal-Mart ultimatum
D.C. lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to a bill requiring some large retailers to pay their employees a 50 percent premium over the city’s minimum wage, a day after Wal-Mart warned that … Continue reading
Walmart’s Goodwill Tour: We Love Our Workers and America, Too
Still, the campaign raises interesting questions about Walmart and the perception of Walmart: Will the ad campaign “work”? And is it necessary? Does a company with such mammoth buying and … Continue reading
