Your PR Architect

Kmart talks "asset light" and "member-centric" while removing services I stopped in at Kmart to buy a shirt. And I discovered  they'd removed the walk-up electronic price scanners that helped shoppers verify item prices and discounts. I now needed to wander the floor, hoping to uncover an employee with a pricing gun. Good luck with finding floor personnel at any Kmart. Really? At a time when retailers should be doing everything to build engagement with consumers, Kmart is removing most of its ways to deliver value to customers. Seems counter-intuitive to a retailer that touts a "Shop Your Way" connection with customers.  No store generates more paper at the register than Kmart. (c) DKassnoff At the checkout, the cashier announced to a fellow clerk, "I'm clocking out at five," before handing me a wad of auto-printed coupons and promotions. Five slips of junk for products I'd never buy. If there's a PR strateg...

Radio Shack, where you bought your last blank cassette in 1998, could file for bankruptcy reorganization in the next few weeks. Retailers have had a rough start in 2015. Macys, J.C.Penney, and Target Canada, which never got its supply chain issues under control, all are shuttering stores. Coolcaesar at the English language Wikipedia  [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons Radio Shack, however, has been losing ground for years, squandering opportunities to rebound. When it lost the computer retailing business to Best Buy, it went into cellphones and wireless phones. And remote controlled toys. And digital cameras. And even created a buzz-worthy TV ad for the 2014 Super Bowl . Of course, RS' marketing never drew crowds. Check out this 1980's ad for the Color Computer III, and you'll see why. Why did Radio Shack falter? A few reasons: its aging customers finally learned ho...