Search

Byline: Barbara Sax Value-oriented promos, on-trend offerings and smart merchandising can lift the VMS category. Promotions dominate the vitamin/mineral/supplement (VMS) category, and if retailers aren't careful, the practice can erode [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Premium positioning takes craft sodas outside the beverage aisle. Craft sodas are worlds away from traditional carbonated soft drinks. The products are created to be savored and [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax New waters blur lines with other beverage categories. The water category is anything but boring. New products, such as naturally flavored low- and no-calorie still and sparkling [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Plant-based beverage sales growing at grocery retail. Plant-based milks and nondairy beverages remain a hotbed of innovation. 'This is a $4.2 billion category, with most of the [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Balancing the tried and true with the innovative is key to success in the category. The cleaning supply category remains a solid performer for supermarkets, but without [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Retailers are offering healthier options for grab-and-go and impulse shoppers. Shifting consumer tastes have caused retailers to rethink their front-of-store beverage merchandising strategies. Supermarket retailers are finding [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Focus on function has retailers rethinking assortment, merchandising. Consumers' desire for healthier foods with fewer ingredients is having a significant impact on the beverage category. The result [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Grocers must narrow assortments, offer value and merchandise creatively to win in this category. Supermarkets are taking a pared-down approach to facial, hand and body moisturizers, offering [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax A category evolves to meet consumer needs. Despite a lack of innovation in the sexual wellness category, retailers can find pockets of growth and profitability. 'Retailers are [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Marketing and merchandising arthritis products mean understanding purchasers' needs. Arthritis sufferers are smarter today about how they manage their pain and are integrating a number of products, [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax To keep sales turning over, grocers must tailor publication assortment and placement. Consumers are still buying books and magazines, but retailers need to manage that category more [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Sales of clean-ingredient OTC and personal care products for children are growing by leaps and bounds. More consumers are reaching for natural products when shopping the OTC [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Grocers can expect incremental gains as more prescription drugs transition to OTC. Prescription drugs switching to over-the-counter (OTC) status represent a huge opportunity for consumers and retailers. [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Innovation on either end of the price spectrum keeps greeting cards going. Technology has hardly killed the greeting card category. Consumers still find that for certain occasions, [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Sports nutrition products are growing popular among a broader range of consumers. Wider consumer appeal and more plant-based natural and organic products are driving the sports nutrition [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax High-performance, hearing aid batteries are fueling the category. Despite slow growth in a mature category, some segments of the battery category have seen an uptick. Overall, the [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax The energy category reboots with natural ingredients, new delivery systems. Consumers are still looking for products that give them an energy boost, but they're shifting toward more [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Older shoppers are increasingly reaching for pain remedies on grocers' shelves. As the population ages and rates of osteoarthritis, diabetes, obesity and osteoporosis rise, consumers self-treating conditions [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Electronic cigarettes set out to overtake their traditional counterparts. After promising growth, sales of electronic cigarettes have flattened. As consumers gravitate to vape shops for more premium [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax The newest generation of products targets particular conditions. Increasing health care costs, coupled with rising consumer health awareness, are buoying the supplement category. While retail shelves are [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Convenient, affordable green products can allow grocers to clean up. Shoppers want a clean house, but they don't want to spend a lot of time cleaning. 'Consumers [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Moisturizers lead the pack in the skin care category derby. Traditional moisturizers are outpacing anti-aging products, but products with a therapeutic positioning are gaining steam in both [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax As family planning morphs into sexual wellness, grocers need to keep up. Many retailers have been recasting their family planning sections to create sexual wellness sets that [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Printed content is still big -- if retailers order and merchandise wisely. Consumers continue to read books and magazines in traditional formats, and several segments of those [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Analgesic trends favor private label and low prices, with natural ingredients on the rise. Last month, the U.S Preventive Services Task Force recommended that men and women [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Children's toiletries take a turn toward the natural and organic. The landscape has changed in the baby and children's toiletry category. Once it was dominated by licensed [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax The newest crop of drugs to go from prescription to over-the-counter offerings can see big sales -- if manufacturers and retailers handle the change correctly. Drugs that [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Grocers should capitalize on the growing sports nutrition category. Consumers are increasingly embracing sports nutrition products for fitness as well as weight-loss aids. Global market intelligence firm [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Paper greetings aren't disappearing, manufacturers insist, but innovation in the category is essential to compete with digital and social alternatives. Paperless substitutes and higher postage stamp rates [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Housewares can be a huge profit center for grocery retailers. Consumers have long purchased housewares in the supermarket channel. In fact, the channel ranks fourth in total [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Blood pressure and glucose monitoring supplies can enhance a grocer's wellness offerings. With data-driven health care becoming a reality, sales of OTC monitors that can store and [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Grocers can take advantage of channel shifts for energy-boosting products. Negative press may have dampened consumers' desire for energy boosters, but tired consumers are still interested in [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax In times of emergency, consumers look to grocery retailers for batteries and flashlights. Batteries and flashlights are some of the first items consumers look for when they [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Grocers can tap the trend of aging older consumers treating ailments on their own. Sales of home health care products are steadily increasing. Aging seniors are not [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Accessories and fitness devices drive sales of small electronics in the grocery channel. American consumers love electronics. Consumers' attachment to smartphones, tablets and laptops, as well as [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Grocers must select, merchandise and promote fragrances and scented bath products for optimal sales. Retailers were hoping the holiday season would finally be merry for the fragrance [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Vitamins and supplements need to stand out in the supermarket. Vitamin, mineral and supplement sales have been flat over the past few years, but there's good news [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Grocers can take advantage of popular BB and CC creams by establishing a beauty strategy. Consumers are taking a layered approach to their skin care regimens, a [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Books and magazines can help boost supermarket sales, especially if grocers lean into the category. Like beverages and confectionery, magazines are a profit center for front end [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Drugs that transition from prescription to over the counter can help swell grocers' sales. Prescription-to-over-the-counter drug switches are always big news in the OTC aisles. Switched products [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax To grow sales, grocers need to radically revamp their cosmetics strategies. Cosmetics has traditionally been a tricky category for the supermarket channel. Seeing opportunity, manufacturers are working [...]

Byline: Barbara Sax Retailers can brighten sales of batteries and flashlights by emphasizing emergency preparedness. Ice, tornadoes, hurricanes, heat waves. Extreme weather is a year-round occurrence, and power outages mean [...]

With quick checkouts (relative to large grocery stores and supercenters) and a wide array of beverage offerings, chain drugstores are positioning themselves as 'convenience stores for women.' It's common knowledge [...]

Power toothbrushes are putting a shine on the oral care category for supermarket retailers. While sales of some dental products, such as traditional toothbrushes, have been relatively flat, power brushes [...]

Supermarkets are rethinking their hair color strategy. Graying baby boomers and new products tailored to young consumers have made hair color one of the hottest segments in hair care. Double-digit [...]

And the Winner Is... After an exhaustive six-month survey of major beverage suppliers, the winning chain in Beverage Aisle's First Annual Excellence in Beverage Retailing program has finally been selected. [...]

Beverages are 'on consumers' minds' when they enter an ARCO ampm store, and the company is committed to make sure it stays that way. When BP and Amoco merged to [...]

As the largest chain in the convenience store industry, 7-Eleven is one of the most recognizable brands nationwide, With more than 21,000 convenience stores worldwide, the operations of 7-Eleven, Inc. [...]

An expanded post-merger On the Run operation promises to keep beverages in the forefront of its marketing, merchandising and promotional focus. With the merger between Exxon and Mobil complete, efficiencies [...]

Beverages, with their immediate-consumption appeal, hold the key to profits in the convenience channel. Convenience stores are on the firing lines of beverage retailing. While many chains are still successful [...]