Recently in Retail Category

Many small busiensses serve local needs...with local solutions.  But which solutions are most central to the heart of sustainable families and sustainable communities?  The Census Bureau has found that money isn't everything.  There are more tangible ways to measure standards of living and small businesses are in a great position to identify solutions that meet these basic human needs.

The living standards of U.S. households are traditionally measured by income.

This report takes a different approach.

Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)

It measures living standards in terms of extended measures of well-being of households tracked in the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to help deepen our knowledge about household conditions in ways not captured by money alone.

Some aspects of well-being, such as fear of crime or quality of local public services, may be only loosely connected with money. Other measures are more closely related to income but can also be effected by factors such as the cost of living, age, disability status, and sudden changes in circumstances.

Extended measures of well-being provide a more complete and detailed picture of household living conditions in the United States than income alone provides.

Well-being Metrics

The U.S. Census Bureau tracks extended measures of well-being in the SIPP.2.  The SIPP's "Extended Measures of Well-Being" topical module, on which this report is based, covers five broad domains:

(1) appliances and electronic goods, such as possession of refrigerators, landline and cellular telephones, and computers;

(2) housing conditions, including level of satisfaction with overall home repair, adequate living space, and sufficient privacy;

(3) neighborhood conditions and community services, such as: road conditions and the presence of abandoned buildings; satisfactory police, fire, and medical services; and attitudes towards local schools;

(4) meeting basic needs, including the ability to pay bills in full, to avoid eviction, and to have sufficient food; and

(5) the expectation of help, should need arise, from friends, family, and the community.

For this report, extended measures of well-being are used to describe living conditions in the United States for the time period 1992-2003.

According to the National Restaurant Association's 2009 forecast, approximately four in 10 full-service restaurant operators and almost three in 10 quick-service operators plan to devote more of their budgets to green initiatives.

New guidelines for going greener are available through the Green Restaurant Association, which has published Certified Green Restaurants 4.0 standards.

"Diners are increasingly environment-savvy," says Michael Oshman, executive director of the Green Restaurant Assoc.--which has been promoting sustainable restaurants since 1990. "Interest has spiked in the last year to 18 months, and businesses are responding." Calls asking for the GRA's consulting services have tripled in the last two years, he noted.

The new Green Restaurant standards allocate points for various categories, including

• energy use reduction
• water conservation
• waste reduction
• disposables
• chemical and pollution reduction
• sustainable food from local and organic sources
• sustainable furnishings that use recycled content or sustainable materials
• sustainable building materials

Newly built restaurants must accumulate 205 points via a specific matrix to achieve a Certified Green Restaurant Sustainabuild designation, as well as conduct a full-scale recycling program--including construction materials--and be free of Styrofoam and other polystyrene foams.

Restaurant chains, including Subway, McDonalds, Chipotle and Dunkin Donuts have pursued USGBC-sponsored LEED certification for individual units, through the Core-and-Shell or retail designations.

A member of the US Green Building Council since 2007--and a member of the LEED for Retail pilot program--McDonalds opened its first LEED-certified unit in 2005 at Abercorn Commons--the US' first LEED-certified shopping center--in Savannah, GA.

McDonalds' green program covers a wide variety of operational improvement programs including 

• high-efficiency rooftop mechanical equipment and boilers
• efficient interior lighting with skylights and daylight controls
• water-saving plumbing fixtures
• green roof
• stormwater management with permeable parking lot pavement and rain gardens
• LED exterior signage
• green power purchased through renewable energy credits

Many of these green stratgies can be scaled for small restaurants -- and many communities offer special programs to assist independent restaurants afford energy conservation.  The community benefits by reducing the peak energy load during heavy usage seasons and times of day, and restaurants can significantly reduce their energy costs. 

Surveys by Boston-based Aberdeen and Dayton, OH-based NCR Corp., show that retailers describe technology as a tool that can help struggling businesses survive the downturn and give them a competitive edge. Aberdeen surveyed about 200 retailers in November and December 2008 about the state of business and technology.

Four out of five retailers are grappling with historically higher cost of goods and low consumer confidence, according to Aberdeen

And shoppers are skittish, NCR found, focused on sales and discounts and willing to switch stores to find them.

Retailers shifted their value chain priorities and IT investments in the last six months of 2008 compared to the first six.

In the second half of the year, "technology and process spending was geared towards accelerated product campaigns, door busters, and promotions--in terms of price discounts and frequency, customer loyalty programs, precision merchandizing, and lean inventory management."

These strategies were designed to minimize business risks such as store closings, working capital squeeze, depleted customer satisfaction due to staff cuts, and low margin attainment.

Anand says the main concerns for 2009 are customer-facing and retail optimization applications that directly affect the bottom-line, greater application integration and hosted application delivery models. 

To attract and retain customers is the goal -- a task NCR suggests will be easiest for retailers who make their businesses most convenient for consumers.

Bargain conscious Americans are spending more time evaluating less familiar brands, switching stores to capitalize on deals and scheduling shopping trips to coincide with the arrival of paychecks, according to a survey of US consumers commissioned by NCR.

The NCR research found:

• 72% of consumers are more likely to shop with a retailer offering the flexibility of online, mobile and kiosk self-service channels;
• Nearly half think kiosks that show them where to find products in stores would be convenient;
• 43% believe receiving discount offerings and product information on large screens in store would be convenient;
• 39% want self-return solutions for processing returns quickly.

READ MORE HERE