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Why the Easter Bunny Is a Retail
Beast
By
Jason Notte
WASHINGTON
(TheStreet) -- The Easter Bunny may look fluffy
and cute, but retailers know there's a lot of
consumer-toned muscle beneath that fuzzy
exterior.
Easter
may not have the profile of other more secularly
oriented holidays, but the bunny is a retail
beast. Easter brought in more than $14 billion
last year, accounting for 6.1% of all holiday
spending, according to IBISWorld. That's good
for fifth among its holiday cohorts behind the
winter holidays (59.2%), Thanksgiving (13.4%),
Valentine's Day (7.5%) and Mother's Day
(6.5%).
Last
year, the 79.6% of Americans who celebrated
Easter spent an average of $118.60 on the
holiday. The overwhelming majority of that
spending went right into the Easter baskets as
food ($37.45), gifts ($18.16) and candy
($17.29). For such companies as Tootsie
Roll(TR_), Hershey's(HSY_) and Kraft(KFT_) --
which is on its second year of making Cadbury
Creme Eggs -- Easter is a $1.9 billion basket of
goodies with candy sales second only to
Halloween's $2 billion, according to the
National Confectioners Association.
"Easter
is obviously a religious holiday, but many
retailers have discovered that Americans
consider Easter the official kickoff to spring,"
says Kathy Grannis, spokeswoman for the National
Retail Federation. "We've found that millions of
Americans head out every spring to buy not only
Easter-related products, but to buy new spring
apparel."
While
roughly 65% of Americans got their chocolate,
jelly beans and decorations at discount stores
such as Wal-Mart(WMT_), Target(TGT_),
Kmart(SHLD_), Kohls(KSS_) and Fred Meyer(KRO_)
last year, they were putting a lot more into the
cart than just holiday treats. The NRF says that
roughly 39.2% of Americans spent an average of
$19 on Easter apparel last year -- fueling sales
when there is seemingly little incentive to do
so.
Source:
The
Street
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CounterPoint
SQL Version 8.4 New Features
The latest full version
release of CounterPoint SQL from Radiant Systems
is now out in General Release!!
We're busy testing the release in house to
make sure we are comfortable with all the
new features before scheduling
upgrades. Please let us know if
you're interested in upgrading and we'll get you
on our schedule!!
We've spent the last 2
months listing the new features in this
release. Lets now take a look back at what
I consider the best of CounterPoint
SQL Version 8.4.1
Some of the new
features/benefits of CounterPoint SQL Version
8.4 are:
- Sending
receipts via e-mail: You can now send
receipts to customers via e-mail,
allowing you to offer your customers the
convenience of electronic receipts while
reducing consumption of receipt paper.
- Physical
Count enhancements: This version
includes numerous enhancements that round out
and expand CounterPoint's physical count
functionality, making it more versatile and
useful to a wider variety of merchants.You can
now freeze on-hand quantities by
Quantity on hand or
Quantity available, allowing
you to choose whether to consider unposted
inventory transactions in the frozen quantities
and the resulting physical count
transactions.When you enter or import
physical count quantities, you can now
identify who counted each item and include
free-form comments for each count quantity
(e.g., which section of the count area
- Price
sheets: This version includes
comprehensive price sheet functionality,
allowing you to select a group of items and
apply price changes to all of the items on the
price sheet simultaneously. Price sheets
accommodate common price change scenarios, such
as raising prices by 10% for all items you
purchase from a particular vendor, or setting
the prices for items in a particular category
that haven't sold in the last 90 days to $1.00.
- Sending
customer statements via e-mail: You can
now send statements to A/R customers via e-mail,
allowing you to offer your customers the
convenience of electronic statements while
reducing your consumption of physical supplies,
including printer paper and ink.
- New
Point-of-Sale Device Framework: The new
device framework allows CounterPoint to
communicate with each Point of Sale device
independently, using a high-level interface that
is tailored for each device. The new framework
provides faster device response times and
greater stability, while ensuring that
CounterPoint can still run if a configured
device is disconnected or inoperable for any
reason. In addition, device configuration data
has been removed from the Windows registry and
is now stored in the CounterPoint database,
which allows you to configure Point of
Sale
devices for all of their workstations
simultaneously, instead of requiring you to
visit each workstation.
- PCI-DSS-compliant
passwords required: In previous
versions, the use of passwords was optional,
allowing merchants to decide whether to require
users to enter passwords to log in to
CounterPoint. In this version, to better protect
sensitive cardholder data, the use of
PCI-DSS-compliant passwords is no longer
optional for merchants who are processing credit
card transactions. All users must log into
CounterPoint with a unique password that meets
the minimum PCI DSS requirements for password
length and complexity (i.e., passwords must
include a combination of letters and numbers).
- Data
on Demand: CounterPoint SQL now
supports the ability to provide "data on demand"
to Remote servers and offline workstations
on an as needed basis. This new architecture
means that Remote servers (in Multi-Site
environments) and offline workstations will be
able to access up-to-date inventory, customer,
and sales data that resides on their
"parent"
servers in real time, eliminating the need to
replicate and store that information on each
workstation or Remote server.
- Sending
reports via e-mail :You can now send
back office reports to user, customers, and
vendors via e-mail, allowing you to easily share
reports while reducing your consumption of
physical supplies, including printer paper and
ink. You can create new user, customer, or
vendor record to capture e-mail addresses "on
the fly," add an e-mail address to an existing
record, or specify a "one use" e-mail address
when you send a report.
Any
questions can be directed at Rob Freda at Rob.Freda@armsys.com or
303-738-1800
x311
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Stores look forward to
customers' tax
refunds
By Gracie
Shepherd
Tax
refunds are an upside of tax season, and they
are used for an assortment
of purposes ranging from cushioning a nest egg
to splurging on a cruise to the
Bahamas.
Though
Clara Nailor was shopping for televisions at
H.H. Gregg at Augusta Exchange, she said her
family was planning to save their tax
refund this year.
"We save or spend the refund according
to how things go each year," she said. "This is
a saving year."
Nailor is not alone.
According to the National Retail Federation, 42
percent of taxpayers plan to save their 2011
refunds.
For the rest, that money will be
spent. Local retailers, travel agents and
bankers say they notice an increase in business
around this time of year.
Continue
Reading:
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2011-03-25/stores-look-forward-customers-tax-refunds
Source:
The Augusta Chronical
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New
feature in Version 8.4 of
CounterPoint:
Prompting for grid cells
in kits
Previously,
when a user sold a miscellaneous kit that
included a gridded component, the user could
only specify the cell (i.e., Red/XL) for that
component if it was configured to allow
substitution with other grid cells. However, the
user had to manually substitute the
component.
Similarly,
when a user sold a tag-along kit that included a
gridded component, the user was required to
manually change the cell using the Line details
command on the Line menu.
In
8.4, you can configure CounterPoint to prompt
users to choose the cell for each gridded kit
component automatically at the time of the sale.
This feature streamlines the process of selling
kits, saving time at the register and requiring
fewer steps for the user to remember.
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Kristina
Gallagher, Web Developer
Meet Krissy Gallagher,
Advanced Retail Management Systems Web
Developer. Krissy joined ARMS in early
December of 2006 as a part of the Development
Services Department. In July 2008 Krissy started
her own company, KrisCreative, and continues to
work for ARMS as a contractor. Krissy has
made a big impact by designing and updating
ARMS' Web Site, Company Logo, is
involved in marketing campaigns and has worked
on many more exciting projects.
This New Hampshire
transplant and her husband came to Denver in
April of 2006 after a two-year stay in
Pittsburgh. Her work experience includes being a
Digital Media Manager for a large travel agency,
as well as, a Senior Web Master at an e-commerce
company where she won the company
the distinction of "Best E-commerce
Site" in the New Hampshire Internet Awards.
Her talents have won her
the respect of her peers here at ARMS.
Krissy is an equestrian
with many years of experience showing her horse
"Budlite," who made the move to Colorado as
well. Along with riding, she enjoys spending
time with her 2 year old son and 9 week old
daughter.
Keep your eyes open for
continuing changes in the ARMS web site and
other media activities.
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Follow
Advanced Retail Management Systems on
Facebook
 Keep up with latest
happenings in Retail and your particular
POS\Inventory Control software by becoming a fan
of Advanced Retail Management Systems (ARMS) on
Facebook! Video Clips from
the ARMS staff with Tech Tips and other helpful
information coming soon!
By being a fan of ARMS, you will receive
information about your software including
special "web only" tips & tricks that won't
be given elsewhere. You'll be among the first to
learn about new release and features, training
opportunities, and links to interesting
information on the web. Connect with the
ARMS staff and our customers!
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Nielsen: Men Take To
Stores, Women Head To
Couch
B y
Sarah Mahoney
In
its latest analysis of shopper behavior, Nielsen
is reporting a subtle gender shift: Men are
spending more time in supermarkets, and women
are spending more time on the couch watching the
tube.
Women
are still doing the majority of shopping in all
retail channels (with the exception of
convenience stores), writes Todd Hale,
SVP/consumer & shopper insights, in his
analysis. And they also ring up bigger totals at
checkouts, which implies they still do the
heavy-duty weekly stock-up trips. But men aren't
just running out for beer and chips: At the
grocery store, women spend an average of $44.43
per trip, while men spend $34.81 -- and at
dollar and warehouse club stores, women are only
spending $3 and $5 more respectively per trip
than guys are, the market research company
reports.
One
factor, he writes, is that men are still facing
a slightly higher unemployment rate than women
(8.8% compared to 7.9%), which may be making
them more hands-on at home. But the
men-go-to-market trend was well established
before the recession: "Men have increased trip
shares between 2004 and 2010 in all retail
channels but drug stores," he writes.
And
no matter who is pushing the wagon, Sunday is
the most important shopping day of the week. (At
warehouse clubs, Saturday is almost as big a
day.)
Continue
Reading: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=146736
Source:
MediaPost News
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Tell another retail store that is
looking for a Point of Sale system about
Advanced Retail Management Systems. When
you refer a retailer to us that participates in
a 1 hour web presentation for Retail Pro,
CounterPoint or Microsoft RMS, we will send you
$100 - it's that simple!
Register
your referral today. Call Susie Carmen
today at (303) 738-1800 Ext 357
or E-mail her at susie.carmen@armsys.com
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