5/31/2012 3:08 AM ET
(RTTNews) - Membership warehouses operator Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST: News ) reported May comparable sales growth of 4% for the total company. Net sales in May totaled $7.67 billion, an increase of seven percent from $7.14 billion in the same period last year.
The company said the deflation in gasoline prices had a slight negative impact on comparable sales for the four-week period, while inflation in gasoline prices had a positive impact for the thirty-nine week period; foreign currencies had a negative impact for both periods. Excluding these effects, total company's comparable sales for the 4-week period went up 6%.
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Shopping around too tiring? Use smartphone - Yahoo Finance
Melanie Sheridan doesn't do much shopping these days without her smartphone. As a work-at-home mother and the creator of the blog "Mel, A Dramatic Mommy," Sheridan says she relies heavily on her phone to organize her household shopping and keep a close eye on her spending.
"I've been on a serious mission to slash our grocery budget," says Sheridan, who lives with her husband and son in San Diego. "Now that I've got an iPhone, I told my husband it will start paying for itself in terms of savings."
Tech-savvy, price-conscious consumers have hundreds of mobile phone applications to choose from. Sheridan says she's shaved about $50 off her family's monthly grocery bill by using a combination of five different smartphone shopping apps. Sometimes the savings come from something as simple as making a list and sticking to it. But she says the real household budget help comes from smartphone apps for comparing prices.
Apps take legwork out of comparing prices
Amazon Price Check is one of Sheridan's go-to apps for retail items because it allows her to see if better prices are available online while she's shopping in a store. She scans item barcodes with her phone's camera or types product names into the app's search bar to compare the store's prices to those offered by Amazon and its merchants.
ShopSavvy, Google Shopper and eBay's RedLaser are comparison-shopping apps that work in similar fashion but show prices charged for a particular item across the Internet and at other local stores.
If you're having trouble finding a store selling what you're looking for, apps such as Goodzer can help you source almost any consumer item, whether it's available at a chain store or local mom-and-pop shop.
The Consumer Reports Mobile Shopper allows you to instantly compare prices from both online merchants and local brick-and-mortar stores, plus it shows you the product reviews and insights the magazine is known for.
Shop around for a shopping app
The Consumer Reports app has an annual fee, $4.99 a year, while the others mentioned so far are all free. Often, you won't have to open your wallet for a great app that will save you money.
"When it comes to apps, the adage that you get what you pay for is really irrelevant as a litmus test for consumers to decide if they want to install an app," says Ryan Ruud, a digital media expert in Minneapolis who calls Target's free shopping app his "lifeline."
Ruud says plenty of great free smartphone shopping apps are available, often supported by advertising or provided by a particular store hoping you'll shop there. But understand that while a retailer's branded app may offer the latest deals and list-making features, it likely won't tell you if a competitor has a better price. So it's worth shopping around for the right app before you start doing the real shopping around.
To find a quality app, Ruud advises consumers to look at the reviews in an app store. If an app has several hundred reviews or more and the ratings are high, he says it's probably good. Likewise, regular updates for minor fixes are a good sign the app's maker offers ongoing support. If you pick the wrong app, you can always delete it and find another.
Shopping and talking?
Siri, Apple's voice-recognition tool, has been something of a sensation since it was introduced for iPhone last year. Now a number of popular shopping apps advertise the possibility of speaking to your smartphone instead of typing in a product or scanning a barcode to do a price check. Unfortunately, the more cutting-edge you are, the more bugs you're likely to encounter. Voice-controlled shopping apps -- available for both iPhone and Android platforms -- are still in their infancy, with kinks still to be worked out.
Craig Agranoff, a technology reporter and co-founder of Grip'd, a Boca Raton, Fla., company that develops iPhone and iPad apps, says he's not quite sure Siri is a useful mobile shopping tool just yet.
"Voice for product searching seems to be a bit far off for now since you're really hoping that the operating system recognizes what you said properly," says Agranoff. If the voice app doesn't understand you, you'll be back to manually entering product information or scanning the barcode.
But Agranoff points out that the speed of innovation in the mobile-app space is intense, so better voice recognition is coming.
Caution on privacy
While free apps can certainly help you simplify your shopping and save, they also raise some serious questions about consumer privacy, says Aaron Messing, a lawyer who specializes in information privacy issues at OlenderFeldman in Union, N.J.
"If you have a smartphone, it knows everything about you," he says. "Consumers should understand what types of data they will be sharing when they use a particular app."
Read the terms of service before installing any app. Messing says you also need to ask: Will this app have access to my location, pictures, contact book, and voice or text communications? If so, when will it collect that information, and how will the app use it?
Even people who are extremely cautious about their privacy may decide the benefits of smartphone shopping apps are worth giving up some personal information for, he says. All experts stress that whether a shopping app is free or costs you something, it will track your shopping habits because that's often how customized deals are targeted to specific consumers.
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Google Shopping to give paid advertisers an advantage - San Jose Mercury News
Google (GOOG) unveiled major changes to its shopping business on Thursday that are likely to prove controversial in the e-commerce world.
Starting in the fall, product search results for users in the United States will be influenced by how much retailers and advertisers pay, a company executive said. In the past, product search results were based mainly on relevance, and the program was free.
The change could affect some results that users see when they run a standard search, because it could affect what is shown in boxes marked "Shopping," which will also carry the word "Sponsored," on a standard results page. But the bigger effect will be on results that users see when they click on "Google Shopping" -- the name the company is giving to the service previously called "Google Product Search."
"We are starting to transition Google Product Search in the U.S. to a purely commercial model," said Sameer Samat, vice president of product management at Google Shopping. "This will give merchants greater control over where their products appear on Google Shopping."
Google has been in the product listing and search business for about a decade. During that time, it has provided merchants with free access to shoppers. The company made money by running paid product search ads along with unpaid
product listings, according to Eric Best, CEO of Mercent, which helps retailers sell through Google and other e-commerce websites such as Amazon and eBay (EBAY)."Today, that model goes away," Best said. "It's a very big deal."
The changes may ultimately help Google extract more revenue and profit margin from its retail advertisers, which account for up to 40 percent of Google's advertising base, Best said.
Calling the change a significant move for Google, analyst Danny Sullivan wrote on the industry blog Search Engine Land that Google has previously said it wouldn't adopt the practice of "paid inclusion" because it wanted to assure users of unbiased results.
Sullivan noted that Google now says that having a commercial relationship with merchants will allow it to provide more accurate results. He also noted that Google says the new results will be marked "Sponsored" to differentiate them from standard search results.
For retailers, there are upsides and downsides, said Best.
"The downside is that retailers are going to have to pay for performance when it comes to e-commerce traffic and revenue driven by or through Google," Best said. "The free traffic is disappearing."
The changes may be controversial in the Internet community because Google's search results have traditionally not been influenced by money, Best said.
"Pay-for-placement to some degree is an alternative to purely organic relevancy results," he said. "The fact that shopping results will be more closely tied to bid-for-placement will not sit well with all advertisers."
The new program will help retailers make their products more visible to shoppers searching on Google. The old system was difficult for Google to police because retailers could list a lot of products for free. If they have to pay, it may reduce clutter, Best explained.
"Having a commercial relationship with merchants will encourage them to keep their product information fresh and up to date," Google's Samat wrote in a blog Thursday. "Higher quality data -- whether it's accurate prices, the latest offers or product availability -- should mean better shopping results for users, which in turn should create higher quality traffic for merchants."
Mercury News staff writer Brandon Bailey contributed to this report.
Costco Wholesale May Comparable Store Sales up 4% - Benzinga
Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) today reported net sales of $7.67 billion for the month of May, the four weeks ended May 27, 2012, an increase of seven percent from $7.14 billion during the similar period last year.
For the first thirty-nine weeks of its reporting period ended May 27, 2012, the Company reported net sales of $71.28 billion, an increase of ten percent from $64.75 billion during the similar period last year.
Comparable sales for May was up 4%.
Star Shopping using Dublin address to defraud UK customers - Irish World News
By Dan Griffin
A direct mail company is using an Irish PO Box address to defraud customers in the United Kingdom.
Star Shopping sends personalised leaflets toUK residents, falsely informing them that they have won sums in excess of £20,000. The recipient is told that in order to receive their “winnings” they must purchase an item for £25 from an accompanying catalogue. They are instructed to send the order along with the money to a PO Box address in Clonshaugh, Dublin 17.
The item from the catalogue tends to be worth a fraction its price and, following purchase, the prize money is never forthcoming.
Elderly people in particular are being targeted by the company which appears to work off a mailing list system. As well as being defrauded out of the £25, personal details which have been included in the return correspondence are also used by the company for the purpose of identity theft.
The Office of Fair Trading has received a number of reports in relation to Star Shopping but a spokesman was unable to clarify the status of any complaints. Previously the OFT took legal action against a Star Shopping holding company, but now the office suspects the company has re-emerged.
In 2004 the OFT received reports of direct mail fraud. Following a cross-border investigation, the organisation took court proceedings against Best BV, a Dutch company which traded as Best Of, Oliveal, and Star Shopping.
On appeal the OFT won an injunction against Best BVto prevent it from “sendingUKconsumers misleading mailings.” The court ruled that Best BV would be fined €1 million for any subsequent piece of misleading piece sent and also forced them to place an agreed statement in two national UK newspapers apologising for having misled UK consumers.
According to the OFT spokesman this court case crippled the company and shut it down.
“As far as we’re concerned this investigation is closed,” he said. “If the company is doing it again it’s doing it as a phoenix company. It does occasionally happen. So, the holding company has been dismantled, but they just set themselves up again under a slightly different name and they have a different universal beneficial owner and they can do a very similar thing but if they get taken to court they won’t be found guilty twice.”
He continued: “We have received complaints. We get these kinds of complaints quite regularly but the question is whether or not there is sufficient concern to action them.”
The Advertising Standards Authority has also received complaints since the company’s apparent crippling in 2006. But the authority is powerless to take action because, although the company is targeting UK residents, its base of operations is outside of Britain.
An ASA spokesman said: We have obviously heard of Star Shopping and we’ve had 17 complaints since 2006, so we’ve not been bombarded, but in all these instances it has been outside of our remit… the most recent one we’ve had is registered Dublin 17.”
The Irish World contacted the Irish Consumer Protection Agency which also said it had received a number of complaints in relation to Star Shopping. However, despite the Irish PO Box address, the agency said: “Star Shopping have no geographic location/base in Ireland and is not registered as a business in this jurisdiction. A Dublin PO Box is used for correspondence, which is then forwarded by a mail forwarding service to a handling company based elsewhere in the EU.”
Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports May Sales Results - Yahoo Finance
ISSAQUAH, WA--(Marketwire -05/31/12)- Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) today reported net sales of $7.67 billion for the month of May, the four weeks ended May 27, 2012, an increase of seven percent from $7.14 billion during the similar period last year.
For the first thirty-nine weeks of its reporting period ended May 27, 2012, the Company reported net sales of $71.28 billion, an increase of ten percent from $64.75 billion during the similar period last year.
Comparable sales for these periods were as follows:
4 Weeks 39 Weeks ---------- ---------- U.S. 5% 7% International 3% 7% Total Company 4% 7% ========== ==========
Deflation in gasoline prices had a slight negative impact on comparable sales for the four-week period, while inflation in gasoline prices had a positive impact for the thirty-nine week period; foreign currencies had a negative impact for both periods. Excluding these effects, comparable sales for these periods were as follows:
4 Weeks 39 Weeks ---------- ---------- U.S. 5% 6% International 8% 9% Total Company 6% 7% ========== ==========
Additional discussion of these sales results is available in a pre-recorded telephone message. You can access the recording by dialing 1-855-859-2056 (conference ID 28780562). This message will be available today through 5:00 p.m. (PT) on Friday, June 1, 2012.
Costco currently operates 602 warehouses, including 435 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 82 in Canada, 32 in Mexico, 22 in the United Kingdom, 13 in Japan, eight in Taiwan, seven in Korea and three in Australia. The Company also operates Costco Online, an electronic commerce web site, at www.costco.com and at www.costco.ca in Canada. The Company plans to open up to an additional six new warehouses prior to the end of its fiscal year on September 2, 2012.
Certain statements contained in this document and the pre-recorded telephone message constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For these purposes, forward-looking statements are statements that address activities, events, conditions or developments that the Company expects or anticipates may occur in the future. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events, results or performance to differ materially from those indicated by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, domestic and international economic conditions, including exchange rates, the effects of competition and regulation, uncertainties in the financial markets, consumer and small business spending patterns and debt levels, conditions affecting the acquisition, development, ownership or use of real estate, actions of vendors, rising costs associated with employees (including health care costs), energy, and certain commodities, geopolitical conditions and other risks identified from time to time in the Company's public statements and reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Costco Wholesale Corporation
Richard Galanti
425/313-8203
Bob Nelson
425/313-8255
Jeff Elliott
425/313-8264
PayPal claims its iPhone and Android shopping app beats NFC chips - Daily Telegraph
Unlike many other attempts to turn smartphones into electronic wallets, PayPal’s app does not rely on NFC. Google, credit card firms and the mobile operators – as well as, it’s rumoured, Apple - are all backing this “wave and pay” technology. It is being built into the latest devices such as the Samsung Galaxy SIII and works in a similar way to London’s Oyster card system.
PayPal claimed its app is better, however, because it does not require retailer to install new equipment.
"[It] underlines our view that mobile payments don't need NFC technology to succeed,” said Mr McLean.
“PayPal’s ‘pay by mobile’ service works with the phones most of our customers already own. And our retail partner doesn't have to install new systems to take in-store mobile payments.”
But NFC’s backers have begun a big push of their own on British high street. Barclaycard is currently heavily marketing its “PayTag”, a sticker containing an NFC chip designed to be stuck to the back of a smartphone. It converts current devices, which typically lack built-in NFC capability, into electronic wallets.
Despite widespread predictions of a cashless future, some critics have argued that NFC and other mobile payment systems will hand too much control to banks and big technology firms. Never the less, on Wednesday the Post Office said it will soon become Britain's largest operator of NFC pay points.
CTS Wholesale Sunglasses Launches Customer Reviews Website - YAHOO!
CTS Wholesale Sunglasses has embraced social media fully by launching its customer reviews site for the clients to leave their testimonials and feedback.
(PRWEB) May 31, 2012
Ecommerce vendors are increasingly embracing social media and CTS Wholesale has launched its customer reviews website to collect customer feedback and testimonials. They already have a Facebook page and a blog to keep in touch with their customers and fans.It is now common knowledge that Internet is no more a one-way medium where the business owners would show their product range and customers would buy. Now users are actively voicing their opinion about the different brands and also checking others' comments before taking a final buying decision. Therefore companies need to be in touch with their most precious asset, customers. Customer reviews websites help the companies to collect these testimonials in an organized fashion and display these to help their prospects move towards the buying decision with confidence.
"We love to carry out a constant dialog with our customers and our social media activities are a reflection of this policy. We started with a blog to share marketing tips and new product information with our small business customers. Then we launched a Facebook page to interact with them even more closely. And now we have opened another channel where they can share their good and bad experiences with us," shared Kirk Bachelder, owner of CTS Wholesale.
CTS operates an online ecommerce portal where people can buy wholesale sunglasses, wholesale hats and oil based lighters with a large selection of designs. This site is very user friendly and has provision for toll-free numbers and live online chat to help the customers with any questions they may have about the products, shipping or returns.
Actively monitoring the online media helps business owners research the in-demand products and understand the consumer psyche which enables them to launch just what the market needs. This results in ready acceptance of their products by the early and later stage buyers. CTS regularly announces coupon codes and special discounts through the social channels for a little extra profit to the people who stay connected with the company.
"The reviews website helps us listen to our customers and learning about their good experience in dealing with us motivates us to provide an even better service next time. We also get to know if someone has faced any problem and we can set things right and resolve the customer's issues quickly thereby improving the overall satisfaction level," said Kirk. "Those who leave us a review are also rewarded by a surprise bonus," added Kirk.
CTS offers wholesale replica sunglasses, sunglass accessories and sales tools like display stands, which can be bought online and sold at malls, exhibitions and other retail markets. With a fantastic profit potential, selling sunglasses has become an attractive proposition for several people who want to run their own small retail business. CTS is a leading online wholesaler of such products. Those testing the waters can buy as little as 1 dozen, while there is a provision for large commercial level wholesale packs for those with an established outlet.
The store has a convenient ordering process, facility to pay with a credit card and same day shipping resulting in pleasant online shopping experience. Toll-free numbers in both USA and UK allow the customers to get their questions answered in real time.
About CTS Wholesale LLC:
CTS Wholesale operates an online store selling sunglasses, caps, hats and lighters to dealers buying in wholesale. Stressing on high style, attractive prices and reliable quality, they are a popular consumer website. Visit http://www.CTSWholesaleSunglasses.com. The customers can leave their review at http://reviews.CTSWholesaleSunglasses.com.
Contact:
Kirk Bachelder
CTS Wholesale LLC
503.364.3486
###
Kirk Bachelder
CTS Wholesale Sunglasses
503.364.3486
Email Information
Foster City shopping center changes hands - The Business Journal
Foster City’s Marlin Cove Shopping Center is changing hands for $17.38 million in an off-market deal that closed fast.
How fast?
“The deal was all cash in 21 days,” said Ryan Forsyth of Cornish & Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank , who represented the buyer, Retail Opportunity Investments Corp., with colleague Scott Crowle. The seller was not disclosed.
The 74,596-square-foot center, at 1070-1098 Foster City Blvd., includes a three-story office building and 53,379 square feet of retail. It is 75 percent leased, and tenants include 99 Ranch Market, Starbucks and Round Table Pizza. The office building includes doctors’ offices and PrimePay, a payroll services company.
Nearby is the high-rise apartment complex Marlin Cove apartments, with 280 units. Also, in April the city sold a 15-acre property to developer The New Home Co. for $30 million. Plans for the site, adjacent to City Hall at 610 Foster City Blvd., include 30,000 square feet of retail and a senior-housing complex that would add 400 townhomes, condos, assisted living units and affordable apartments to the region.
“The population is going to get denser,” Forsyth noted.
Marlin Cove Shopping Center in the past has leased for about $2.50 a square foot.
ROIC focuses on retail properties and has 32 shopping centers across the country. In Northern California, it owns centers in Sacramento, Stockton, Pleasant Hill, Monterey County and Pinole. The company posted gross profit of $51.7 million for the year ended Dec. 30, 2011.
David Goll covers health care, retail, nonprofits and education at the Business Journal. His phone number is 408.299.1853.
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Lessons Learned From Mystery Shopping - CSNews Online
Gas prices rise and fall almost cyclically in and around summertime, but they remain unpredictable due to myriad other forces. How does a convenience store protect against a customer who is predisposed to aggravation based on the soaring prices, and guard its own bottom line?
Superior customer service is clearly a factor. Mystery shopping -- the only honest, transparent view of actual customer service measured against the factors important to your brand -- has helped c-stores protect their bottom line by ensuring attentiveness to the shopper.
"Quality service still sells," said Al Goldsmith, vice president of Maritz Research Virtual Customers, a Mystery Shopping Providers Association – North America (MSPA-NA) member. "We see it in every industry, but particularly in the dynamic and competitive retail petroleum sector. Since most petroleum products are commodities, an effective differentiation strategy must rely heavily on quality service and consistent delivery at retail to achieve sales and customer loyalty objectives."
A major retail petroleum company that's a customer of Goldsmith's Maritz Research has the numbers to prove that scoring your customer service -- and making adjustments on the fly -- directly benefits the bottom line. The client's mystery shopping program scores its channel partners three times year and what's been revealed is that locations attaining high marks on mystery shops and audits sell more gas, regardless of fuel prices. In the first year of the program alone, the client's channel partners experienced a double-digit increase in average monthly volume.
Gas prices are an important factor in customer decisions, but other factors play as important a role. A recent survey by MSPA-NA member Corporate Research International, a division of Stericycle, revealed that three of the top five factors that drive customer choice relate to employees.
When asked, "What is important to you when determining where to shop?" gas prices scored an 8.48 (out of a possible 10), barely outscoring team members' professional and clean appearance (8.41), employee willingness to help customers (8.38) and their knowledge and courtesy (8.24). Convenience naturally was the king, topping the survey with an 8.55 score.
What that tells us is if the convenience store is next to or near another gas station and its prices are typically competitive with its neighbor (and seemingly just as convenient a location), then the service given by the employees will directly determine which store's cash register rings more consistently. Other factors, such as soda and coffee selection and pricing, loyalty programs and candy prices, scored much lower in the survey.
SavOn, a chain of 13 c-stores in upstate New York, has seen an increase in the skills of its associates and the ability of managers to coach employees through its mystery shopping program with College Station, Texas-based Customer Impact, another MSPA-NA member.
"We realized years ago that it takes more than low prices to create a positive experience for our guests," said Sean Brown, owner of SavOn. "Guest service is the key in gaining and retaining customers, and our mystery shopping program through Customer Impact helps us maintain that service at an unmatched level, no matter how far fuel prices rise."
Brown said his employees have come to be "excited" to receive the results of their mystery shops. The constant mystery shops built into SavOn's program allow employees to stay on their toes and receive great satisfaction when they receive high scores.
And one factor we cannot ignore is the single factor customers tell us they can't ignore -- a bad restroom. According to a recent research survey by Cintas Corp., 95 percent of customers avoid patronizing a business in which they have had a negative restroom experience. Given the general reputation for the restrooms in gas stations and convenience stores, this represents a golden opportunity.
"Consumers are becoming very selective of where they buy their gas and where they choose to do their business," said Steve Heintzelman, vice president of sales and marketing at RitterAssociates, a MSPA-NA member. "Providing the consumer with a great overall experience that includes a friendly staff, a varied selection of convenient products, as well as a clean restroom, can make the difference -- even when your gas prices are higher than your competitors."
So, while consumers are never happy with the frequent spike in gas prices, your bottom line will rise and fall largely on other factors. Unless you are offering a significant savings on gasoline compared to a neighboring station, your employees clearly make the most substantial impact on customers.
Mystery shopping, for years, has helped delivered a clear view of your 24-hour delivery of customer service. If you don't have a handle on that issue, it might leave a bad taste in a customer's mouth -- even more than coffee brewed hours ago.
Dan Denston is executive director of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association -- North America, a position he's held since 2011. He has extensive history with associations and association management throughout the country, as well as other varied business and educational experience. MSPA-NA is the trade association representing the customer experience metrics (mystery shopping) industry throughout North America.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in this column are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Convenience Store News.
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