Father’s Day wasn’t much help to the U.S. retail industry in June, as most major chains posted same store sales results that were farther into negative territory than anyone expected. While most retailers were quick to blame unseasonably cool and wet weather for their poor sales results, some others, like Saks, Buckle, and Tandy found a way to buck recessionary trends and deliver positive results. Apparently their customers own umbrellas.

Saks pulled itself out of double-digit same store sales losses for the first time in seven months, which was a noteworthy accomplishment achieved with a not so noteworthy retail tactic. Saks threw a sale, and shoppers showed up for it. How pedestrian!

Apparently Marc Jacobs cotton twill jackets and Pima cotton skirts from Red Valentino become recessionary must-haves when they are marked down 70%. But isn’t that something that TJ Maxx, Ross and Stein Mart figured out a couple of decades ago?

The designer sale which was staged in June is an annual event at Saks. Despite its particular appeal to shoppers this year, however, discounting is not going to be adopted as an ongoing strategy, no matter how desperate for transactions the Fifth Avenue retailer might seem to be. The luxury retailer, instead, has decided to meet scarcity with scarcity.

This fall Saks shoppers will find fewer designers, smaller collections, and a limited assortment of sizes and colors of just about everything. It seems this will be true for most luxury retail operations. By offering less, luxury retailers are creating a paradigm of that’s-all-there-is-there-ain’t-no-more, which they are hoping will retrain their customers to shop early and shop often.

Luxury is moving back to... more...

Cage-free eggs have become a hot trend for American restaurant chains, as activist groups are successfully dragging major food retailers into the middle of the ethical food production debate. While both consumers and U.S. retail industry restauranteurs have declared their public support for the cage-free movement, both groups have yet to convincingly demonstrate real loyalty for the cause with deeply committed actions.

Red Robin is the latest U.S. casual dining chain to announce that it will be using cage-free eggs in its restaurants. The company made a public commitment to go cage-free with at least one-third of its eggs beginning this month. By the end of 2010 the company vows that none of its eggs will originate from foul fowl sources.

This is a move that is aligned with the social responsibility that Red Robin demonstrates regularly, and for all of its principle-motivated decisions the company deserves applause. The value of this particular decision to the farm animal welfare movement, however, is really more about hype than substantive impact.

If you scan the Red Robin gourmet burger menu, it's a where's-Waldo kind of exercise to find any of its offerings that use eggs. Beyond the fried egg which tops its signature Royal Red Robin Burger, and the hard-boiled egg on its Cobb salad, eggs do not seem to be a key ingredient in any of the 59 other menu choices. So, to put Red Robin's cage-free commitment into perspective, 30% of the eggs that are used in 3% of its menu selections are now produced by chickens that have at lest enough room to flap their wings.

Mother-may-I take half of a baby step towards the reformation of the horrifically offensive operating practices of farm factories in America? Yes, you may.

Red Robin's egg use is negligible compared to the restaurant industry as a whole, so its shift to cage-free consumption is not going to make a dramatic impact on the lives of many chickens. This is not a criticism of Red Robin, but more an illustration of the realities of the morally desirable, but logistically challenged cage-free movement.

Currently only 5% of the eggs available in the U.S. today are produced in cage-free operations. Why? Because it's more expensive and there aren't enough customers willing to pay the higher price. It's strictly economics. If every restaurant in America simultaneously decided to stop purchasing eggs that were obtained from sources that were deemed to be "cruel,"�there simply would not be enough "humane" eggs to supply the demand.

Regardless of this supply and demand reality, organizations like the U.S. Humane Society (HSUS) and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are on the warpath with the cage-free issue, launching high profile campaigns targeted at some of the most popular publicly traded U.S. restaurant chains. McDonald's was a recent target. At the company's annual meeting in May, shareholders were asked to vote on a resolution which would compel the fast food chain to begin the transition to purchasing and serving only cage-free eggs. The resolution was initiated by HSUS and PETA, which reportedly own 101 and 79 shares of McDonald's stock, respectively.

Let's pause to enjoy the irony of this scenario. McDonald's sales and stock prices have been flourishing in this recession economy. So, with their stock ownership, both the Humane Society and PETA are both financially supporting and profiting from the very corporate practices that they label as unconscionable. Is anyone besides me amused by that?

In a statement made prior to that shareholder vote, Paul Shapiro, senior director of the HSUS factory farming campaign said, "It's time for the company [McDonald's] to realize that Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to this type of animal abuse and begin switching to cage-free eggs." Reality check, please. It's time for the animal rights advocates to realize that what Americans say and what Americans do are very often two different things.

While Americans may say in a survey that they are morally opposed to battery-cage conditions, if their behaviors matched their beliefs, they would simply stop visiting the McDonald's drive-thru at breakfast time. But they haven't stopped, by the millions. So, in reality, Americans want to have their cage-free chickens and eat their buy-one-get-one-free Egg McMuffins too.

So, everybody is verbally supporting the cage-free outcome, but nobody is proving that they are willing to sacrifice anything to obtain it. McDonald's same store sales continue to grow, so we can conclude that fast food diners are not as morally outraged as they are hungry and broke. And after 95% of the McDonald's shareholders voted against the HSUS/PETA cage-free resolution, we can also conclude that the golden profits of the golden arches are more important than the golden rule for a vast majority of the company's investors.

While I personally support the ideals of HSUS and PETA in this issue, I'm not sure it's really fair to force corporations to grow a conscience when consumers clearly aren't purchasing with theirs. When I looked in the egg cooler at my local Publix grocery store this afternoon, the supply of cheap antibiotic-laced eggs produced by hormone-fed, genetically-altered, physically-abused chickens had been depleted quite a bit. The stock of higher-priced eggs produced by happy, free-moving chickens seemed untouched in comparison.

Millions of people will be adding the 99-cent cartons of eggs to their grocery carts this week without regard to the well-being of the twelve hens that pushed out the product. So aren't the egg end-users the group of people that really should be in the HSUS and PETA crosshairs?

Targeting the fast food companies that make egg sandwiches probably isn't going to work as long as their cash registers are still getting filled by those who are eating the fast food egg sandiwches. Which comes first - the supply of cage-free chickens or the real demand for cage-free eggs backed by steadfast consuming behaviors? That's not really an unsolvable conundrum, is it?

To be fair, there are many companies in the U.S. retail industry that make decisions with a moral compass, leading change instead of reacting to consumer whims. Whole Foods stopped selling eggs from battery-caged hens in 2005. Ben and Jerry's committed to using only cage-free eggs in 2006. Both of these companies have been recognized and admired for their principle-centered practices for as long as they have been in business.

Burger King, Wendy's, Hardees and Carl's Jr. have also publicly committed to using cage-free eggs, but at last reports, 98 out of 100 eggs served at these restaurants are still produced by battery-caged birds. I guess 2% multiplied by several chains will add up eventually, but the big accolades that these companies are getting for such small commitments don't make their cage-free actions seem very authentically motivated.

Should we really be all that impressed by companies that are taking the cage-free high road because it's good for their image and doesn't cost them much? Or is eggwashing starting to be the new greenwashing?

If HSUS and PETA supporters walked into one of the restaurants with a 2% cage-free commitment, it's doubtful that they would be able to specifically request and receive a cage-free egg sandwich there. Let's face it, though. The HSUS and PETA supporters I know are not exactly the target market for these kinds of retail food chains anyway.

That, of course, is the fundamental challenge. Those who care don't consume the products and those who consume the products don't really care. Until one side or the other changes the way they participate in that paradigm, profit-motivated restaurant chains aren't likely to make any profound changes either.

While there are no real winners in the cage-free battle so far, it is clear that the big losers continue to be the chickens.

Or is it the eggs?

The three big losses in the entertainment industry last week have turned into huge gains for the retail industry as fans find room in their recessionary budgets to snatch up memorabilia by the millions. Amazon, eBay, and Apple's iTunes are among the U.S. retailers that are winning big with Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon merchandise sales, and they seem quite unapologetic about profiting from the deaths of three big entertainment icons.

Although the numbers are changing by the minute, Amazon has confirmed that the sale of Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 CDs and MP3s increased 322 times in the 24 hours after the legendary performer’s shocking death last Thursday. By the end of Friday, 14 of the top 15 iTunes downloads were Jackson songs. Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon were sold out of all Jackson-related merchandise very quickly, and are now taking orders that they hope the music industry and publishing industry will help them fill in the near future.

The big retail industry winner in the short-run is the selling agent of all things rare and wacky, eBay. At this writing more than 53,000 active auctions and more than 33,000 completed auctions are related to some sort of Michael Jackson or Jackson Five merchandise. There are also about 3,500 auctions with Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon merchandise as well. Just the listing fees from those auctions will pay eBay’s light bill for a while.

The $10 million auction of the KingMichaelJackson.com domain didn’t sell, but it was worth the $4.00 listing fee to give it a try. Shockingly, though, if we believe everything we see on the eBay site, the auction for MJsMemorial.com domain name was viewed by 290 people, and then the 291st person purchased it for $21 million.

Personally, I’m finding it hard to believe that this is a real sale at a real price that is really going to get paid. If Sony had put the MichaelJackson.com site on the auction block, then maybe the auction price would be justifiable. But “MJ’s Memorial” doesn’t really have the search engine clout or cache that demands a multimillion-dollar price tag. Even lunch with Warren Buffet only fetched $1.68 million on the eBay auction block. Buffet’s been around a lot longer than MJsMemorial.com.

If the domain auction transaction is legitimate, though, then some enterprising teenager in Dexter, Oregon just turned a 20,000,000% profit in 48 hours. (I’m just guessing that the seller is a teenager based on the sophistication level of the auction listing.) And if this is true, then eBay, the seller of everything and owner of nothing, will get a nifty go-between fee of $1,575,000.00.

If this top auction doesn’t finalize, though, perhaps the $19 million MemoryofMichaelJackson.com, the $10 million InMemoryOfMichaelJackson.com, or the $6.5 million MichaelTheKingOfPopJacksom.com auction bids will prove themselves to be real. If even one of these deals goes through, it may be a sign to U.S. retailing that we should all consider adding domain resales into our retail product mix.

In any case, there are tens of thousands of autographed Jackson photos, vinyl albums, CDs, posters, cards, programs, guitars, and magazines waiting for bids, buy-it-nows and best offers on eBay right now. (Michael must have spent an awful lot of his fifty years writing his name, if all of these authentic autographs are really authentic.) You’ll have to look a little harder to find the truly unique items like the autographed drum heads, the Thriller commemorative iPod Touch, the Thriller Platinum Award, and the signed movie contract.

Also, there are apparently a lot of people all over the world who have had a “Beat It” red leather (or vinyl) jacket hanging in their closet for almost 30 years which they are willing to part with for the right price. For $600 or less you can hang one of the jackets in your own closet for the next thirty years.

In the midst of this retail frenzy, the least frazzled retail CEO is probably eBay’s John Donahoe, who can now sleep a little bit easier, knowing that there will be enough money in the company’s PayPal account to cover another multimillion-dollar compensation package for him this year. It would do a lot for eBay’s image within its own community if the company would share some of this king-of-pop booty with a relevant charitable organization. There are shareholders to impress, however, and since eBay's performance has been depressed for a while, the eBay boardroom is probably more eager to boost its net profits than its brand image.

Speaking of image... more about Michael Jackson's death and the retail industry...

A survey conducted by America’s Research Group revealed that 30% of American consumers planned to spend more money in May than they had in April, but 27% would only purchase merchandise that was marked down 50% or more. The Mother’s Day Holiday promised to give May sales a boost, but rising gas prices cut shopping budgets even more. Last year’s May had the infusion of $50 billion in tax refund money, while this year’s May had the inclusion of the entire Memorial Day weekend, a phenomenon that happens only once every 11 years.

When you factor all those conditions and look at the May same store sales numbers compared to charts which no longer include Wal-Mart’s numbers, what do you get? You get a whole bunch of numbers interpreted from a whole bunch of different angles. What you don’t get are many surprises or clear conclusions.

As is the case with so many aspects of retailing, same store sales analysts were looking for a new normal in May, since monthly same store figures no longer include Wal-Mart’s numbers. The easy solution for analysts was to pull up the spreadsheets, strip Wal-Mart out of the equation for the past 15 years, and redraw the charts as if the world’s largest retailer was not part of the U.S. retail industry. Simple enough.

This statistical manipulation makes the recent past look a lot worse, but it also provides a big picture look that is somewhat comforting as well. There are other points in the past when Wal-Mart significantly outperformed the rest of the U.S. retail industry, but everybody got back into alignment eventually. We can all find comfort in the hope that retail history will repeat itself in this way again. The big question is how long “eventually” will take.

Without the Wal-Mart benchmark, and the easy Wal-Mart story angle, the significance of monthly same store sales primarily lies in the comparison of individual retailer numbers with their own past performance. Perhaps that makes more sense anyway.

For the first time in seven months... more...

The numbers from U.S. retail industry in the first two weeks of June tell many different stories depending on the bearish or bullish theory that you’re currently trying to support. New store opening figures have outnumbered store closing additions so far, but just as one publicly traded retailer finds 75 million ways to stay in business, rumors swirled around another major apparel brand that is expected to file Chapter 11 papers any day now. When you add them all together, the retail industry numbers so far this month don’t exactly total up to equal “recovery.”

Talbots feels pretty certain that most of its problems have been solved now that it has finally sold its J. Jill brand for $75 million. Golden Gate Capital is the purchaser of 204 J. Jill stores, which reportedly, they will continue to operate. Talbots has actively been trying to unload the J. Jill chain since November, 2008. Talbots’ leaders seem openly and publicly relieved to get those specialty stores off the balance sheet.

To get back on firm financial footing, Talbots will add the remaining 75 J. Jill locations that nobody wants, along with 16 underperforming Talbots operations to the 2009 retail store closings tally. Company leaders expressed confidence that these dramatic moves, coupled with a 20% reduction in its corporate staff, will allow it to focus on bringing Talbots back to profitability. If that means that they are now giving their focus to stocking their stores with relevant clothing that women actually want to wear, then they will definitely be traveling down recovery road.

Golden Gate Capital, by the way, has gobbled up a diverse collection of retail companies in the past five years. It is now the money and the management behind Express, Spiegel, Newport News, and Herbalife, among others. Since many of these companies were in trouble at the time of acquisition, one has to wonder what the Golden Gate leaders know that the original retail leaders couldn’t figure out. Whatever they know, it seems to work equally well for apparel stores, direct mail catalogs, nutritional supplement MLMs and high-tech businesses alike.

Maybe some members of the U.S. retail industry will start looking for some fresh leadership faces on the pages of Golden Gate’s website. Perhaps the current cadre of retail CEOs has been recycled between the major retail organizations quite enough.

Closings of a different kind are being utilized by some retailers who are still struggling to survive... more...

American Apparel has been using the same kind of explicit photographs that have shocked U.S. retailing in its Australian advertisements after opening its first store there in March, 2008. Apparently the marketing strategy is just as controversial in Australia as it has been in the U.S., and consumers down under have launched protests in hopes that they will force changes to American Apparel's print, store, and website marketing strategies. Good on ya, Aussies, but stand in queue!

The Sydney Morning Herald reported today that Australians are lobbying against American Apparel and the sexually provocative advertisements it has been using to sell its clothing in Australia for the past year or so. Isn't it nice that the company has the word "America" in its brand so that it can connect its own reputation with the U.S. retail industry as a whole? It's not as if America's image abroad hasn't been contentious enough in the past decade.

Unfortunately, Australian protesters, these are the same type of controversial photographic images that American Apparel has been using in the U.S. for years. Protests in the U.S., so far, have only served to draw more attention to the retailer's ads.

The clothes and models in the U.S. and Australian versions of the American Apparel e-commerce websites look pretty much the same. This is curious because our countries are on opposite sides of the globe and, therefore, experiencing opposite weather and fashion seasons.

So, why is that girl in the backless black swimsuit and black heels straddling (literally) the front of the Australian website when temperatures are in the 60's? And why would the American site feature thigh-high socks at the beginning of the summer season except to display the photo of the bare-bottomed nymphet who is modeling them?

I wish I had a way to track how many people just clicked away from this blog and at this moment are trolling the American Apparel website trying to find those photos. Voila! The American Apparel marketing strategy is successful once again!

Perhaps the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau will have more luck getting the company to tone down or clean up its ads than the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has had. The fact that there isn't really a "standards bureau" completely dedicated to the advertising industry in America probably says a lot about what's allowed to go on in advertisements here.

Since I personally am in love with Australia and all things Aussie, I offer this inside hint to help the country and its citizens deal with this paticular U.S. retailer. It is just my own opinion, offered in the spirit of global retail harmony.

American Apparel's decision-makers aren't going to stop using soft-core advertising images just because they are offending the sensibilities of Aussies, Americans or anybody else around the world. In fact, that seems to be part of the motivation behind making the choice in the first place. The company will only stop using scantily-clad and provacatively-posed young women when the strategy no long results in the sale of tube socks, underwear, and t-shirts.

Don't waste your time trying to stop the behavior of the company or its rock star CEO. If you want to make an impact, your effort would be better spent trying to stop the purchase of its products.

If you doubt this sage wisdom, consider this quotable quote given to Business Week magazine by American Apparel's founder and CEO, Dov Charney. "I should tone down? So I don't get in trouble? It's fascism. You're asking me to succumb to tyranny."

Enough said, mates?

More about American Apparel:

• CEO, Dov Charney's 2008 Compensation
• Monthly Same Store Sales Comparison
• American Apparel 2009 Store Openings

“Stabilization” is the buzz word in the U.S. retail industry as both experts and consumers seem very intent on finding numbers that will give them an excuse to believe that the worst of the retail recession is over. But after a week filled with both store closings and openings, Chapter 11 filings and resolutions, and economic indicator ups and downs, stability is a notion that is more rooted in hope than in substance.

The numbers added to the 2009 Store Openings list were larger than the number added to the 2009 Store Closings list last week. This has been the case for several weeks, which is a positive sign to those who are paying attention. Enthusiasm about this trend is tempered a little by the realization that the store closings (and subsequent job cuts) are already historical events, and most of the store openings are still just future predictions.

Hope wins the decision in the first round.

A clear example of the push-me pull-you reality that the U.S. retail industry is still experiencing was seen last week in the Zales and TJX retail chains.

Apparently a lot of diamond shopping wasn't being done for Mother's Day this year, or at least it wasn't being done at Zales. The jewelry retailer reported weaker-than-expected third quarter results last week, and, consequently, the chain also announced that it would pick up the pace of the 115 store closings it has planned for 2009.

In contrast, shoppers were spending freely at the TJX family of deep discount stores. TJ Maxx and Marshalls stores had their most profitable quarter since they joined forces in 1995. Offshoot A.J. Wright’s $4 million quarterly profit was higher than the cumulative profit of its 11-year history. The company’s Home Goods store profits leapt 75%. So while Zales is racing to close its doors, TJX will be racing to open new ones, after quickly adding 20 more stores to its grand opening schedule for 2009.

I suppose some sort of financial poetic license could label the sum total of these kind of expansion and retraction activities as “stabilization.” It’s a little bit like saying that a famine in Africa is balanced out by fast food overconsumption in the U.S., though. The median of the extremes doesn’t exactly represent equilibrium.

Round two is a draw.

Speaking of extremes... more...

While most members of the U.S. retail industry are focused on cutbacks and survival tactics, Aeropostale continues to defy the recession and post numbers that would be impressive even in the best of economic conditions. The teen apparel chain has been killing its competition, topping the same store sales charts, and rocking Wall Street investors with a 40% rise in stock prices since the recession officially began.

U.S. retailers aren’t the only ones asking how Aeropostale is doing it, and stock analysts aren’t the only ones wondering how long the winning streak will last.

Aeropostale’s CEO, Julian Geiger actually seems very eager to tell people how they do what they do. In an interview with Business Week way back in 2004, Geiger very openly revealed the company’s marketing tactics, which are relentless and somewhat unconventional for an apparel retailer. Specifically, Geiger revealed that the Aeropostale marketing team employs these strategies:

• Following trends instead of trying to be a trendsetter
• Looking at what’s on the backs of their target market, instead of what’s on the sales floors of their competitors
• Observing teens in theme parks, concerts, and airports instead of observing them on the streets of international fashion cities
• Allowing teens to view potential new styles, and stocking stores with the teens' favorites
• Using 50 locations as test stores where new merchandise and merchandising is tried out prior to system-wide rollout
• Remembering that most teens are fashion followers, not fashion leaders

Either Aeropostale’s competitors didn’t read that interview or, if they did, they weren’t savvy enough to realize the brilliance hidden within the simplicity of the approach.

While cutting edge manufacturing, distribution, and operations management are supporting its success, there’s one timeless retailing principle that’s really the driving force behind the Aeropostale chain. That is, the customers get what they want.

This simple tenet is quite antithetical to the more popular marketing approach of working really hard to convince customers to want what you have, which is a strategy, by the way, that isn’t working very well for any retailer right now. In contrast, Aeropostale has discovered that when you ask teenagers what they want to spend their money on, and then you make those things available, the kids actually bring their money to your store. How radical!

Aeropostale works hard to engage consumers in other ways besides marketing research. This year the store bonded with its youthful customer base at an emotional level with its “Teens for Jeans” charity project. More than 200,000 pairs of “gently used” jeans were gathered and donated by teen customers to be redistributed to their homeless peers. The project was green, it was activist, it was compassionate, and it was the perfect hip program for the store to insert itself into. With its active participation in the project, Aeropostale gave a human dimension to its brand that advertising dollars and publicity hype could never manufacture.

The Aeropostale we see today is miles away from it where it began, as a small department within the Macy’s chain in the 1980’s. After spinning off and floundering, Aeropostale was rescued from obscurity by Geiger, who defined the brand, built the chain’s identity, and gave Aeropostale a unique selling proposition that is clearly uniquely appealing to its niche. It would be great if its birth parent chain could reinvent itself in a similar way.

In June Aeropostale is bucking the recession again, by opening up a new concept store, P.S. Aeropostale, which is really just a younger version of itself. The new stores are aimed at the 7-12 year olds who have been shadowing their older siblings through the Aeropostale stores, but leaving empty-handed. While moms have worked hard to ignore the whines of their younger children, Aeropostale has worked hard to listen to them, and create a whole store based on their pleadings. If the chain continues to employ its own successful strategies with these spinoff concept stores, there will undoubtedly be a second reason for investors to be happy, and for retailers to shake their heads in wonder.

All of this because customers are getting what customers want? It’s hard to believe that it could really be that simple. Perhaps somewhere along the way retailing got more complicated than it ever really needed to be.

More About Aeropostale:

• Aeropostale's 2009 Store Openings
• Aeropostale on the Fortune 500
• Quotes from Aeropostale's CEO

Despite the solemnity of the occasion, Memorial Day is usually just another holiday for the U.S. retail industry, providing an occasion for discounting appliances, patio furniture, barbecue grills, and clearing out slow-moving inventory with the help of patriotic themed fliers and military family discounts. The difference this year was a pesky retail recession which curbed recreational spending and gave retailers more time to think and remember a kinder, gentler retail environment.

Other than abbreviated operating hours, this Memorial Day was just another Monday at my favorite local chain restaurant, where regulars lunch with their laptops because of the free Wi-Fi and moderately priced sandwiches made on freshly baked bread. It was less than an ordinary Monday for me, however.

The restaurant seemed uncharacteristically disorganized today for some reason. The wait at the cash register to place an order was unusually long, even though the dining room wasn't nearly full. There was not a whole grain baked good in the place, and just about every unoccupied tabletop sat uncleared and uncleaned.

When I received my soup order, the spoon on my tray was filthy. When I handed it back and asked for another one I was given a plastic spoon. When I stated my preference for a metal spoon, the soup expediter sifted through several spoons in her silverware bin, and finally handed me spoon #3, which was also dirty. When I pointed that out, soup girl impatiently told me, “They’re all like that.”

I opted for the plastic spoon, which also later doubled as a butter spreader. After I discovered that I had no knife, I wasn’t really in the mood to play round two of the “find a clean utensil game,” so I made do.

In general, it just felt like there weren’t enough people running the show, and those that were working didn’t particularly want to be there. I figured it was just a day of minor inconveniences caused by holiday staffing. No big deal, really. My dining experience took an ugly turn, however, when the early holiday closing time drew near.

A nasty early evening storm had started, and I think all of the stragglers left in the restaurant were waiting for a lull so we could make a mad dash for our cars. The manager walked up to me and without any kind of greeting stated bluntly that the restaurant was closed and I would have to leave. When I told her that I had been waiting for a break in the storm, she said matter-of-factly, “I have to lock the doors so we can finish cleaning.”

Let me just clarify that there was not a soft summer shower happening outside. This was not “boo-hoo my hair might get wet” rain, this was ankle-high rivers in the parking lot rain. This was a Doppler Radar tracking bonanza. This was the kind of fast and furious tempest that gives Florida its official status as the lightning strike capital of the world. This was a gutter-flooding, backwash-blinding, pull over on the interstate and wait it out deluge.

The most intense part of the storm would undoubtedly have come and gone in less than a half hour like most typical Florida storms, but no matter. It was 6:01 and everyone without a plastic nametag was hustled out the door, with no regard for personal safety, weather gear, or fancy footwear.

Someone who is reading this wants to play the “safety” card at this point, I'm sure. Having been on more restaurant closing shifts than I can count, I acknowledge the need for safe closing practices. But since a majority of the employees at that location know me by sight (or should), I find it hard to believe that my presence gave anyone on the cleaning crew a legitimate cause for concern. None of the other female patrons getting bounced out of the restaurant looked particularly threatening to me either.

I'm sure the storm subsided long before the restaurant closing team had completed their duties. At least I hope so. Because if not, I'd be willing to bet that they got tossed out into the storm too.

Hours later I am still incredulous that anyone would expel a fellow human being into those kind of mini hurricane conditions for any reason. The lack of care and respect demonstrated without apology by that manager still stuns me. I can think of a dozen different ways the situation could have been handled, and none of them include the phrase, ”You have to go.”

In honor of this Memorial Day experience, perhaps it would be a good idea to pause and remember all of the customer relationships that have met with an untimely demise because of retail employees who were so busy completing their tasks that they forgot to do their job. That job being, of course, to provide valuable products and services to people.

Remember the “people?” That’s the part of retailing that’s in short supply right now and causing the retail equation to not compute. Do we really want to disregard people in the middle of recessionary conditions that are still driving major retail chains into Chapter 11?

I would have thought that the desperate lack of customers walking through retail front doors would have permanently elevated our appreciation, and shifted our attitudes towards all customers by now. Apparently not.

All of this may seem like a gross overreaction to a non-event. If you were the one cast out into the elements, though, I’m pretty positive that you’d be typing a similar thing in your blog. And you'd probably be naming names. I'm resisting the urge to do that out of respect for the many positive experiences I've had with this restaurant before yesterday. If there is a next time, though, I probably won't have as much restraint.

If nothing else, my Memorial Day experience is a great demonstration of three foundational customer service principles that deserve to be remembered.

1) There's no time off from customer relationships.

2) You're only as good as your last transaction.

3) It takes a lot of people and a lot of time to build up customer loyalty, but it only takes one employee and one bad moment to tear it down.

If a customer's last impression of you is cold and wet, they may return the favor of your disdain by leaving you high and dry. I bet there are plenty of shrinking retail organizations that wish they would have remembered that sooner.

Taking care of customers is not just one of many responsibilities of a retail organization. These days, taking care of customers is the greatest privilege of a retail organization. If you're lucky, you still get to do it. If you're thoughtless and careless, you won't have the privilege for long.

Any great customer experience can only be created one soup spoon at a time. And every day is a good day to remember that.

The forward motion of the green movement is continuing despite the slowdowns caused by recession, and the U.S. retail industry is being forced to respond to consumer demands for planet friendly products and environmentally responsible practices. While some retailers only see the cash register green that can be gained from promoting and exploiting this latest consumer trend, other retailers see a cause that desperately needs the cooperation of the retail industry in order to advance.

The trend of green consuming gave birth to a new store concept called the EcoShoppe, which opened in Austin, TX yesterday. Part of the Vitamin Shoppe chain, this newest store hopes to appeal to shoppers who are looking for eco friendly and fair trade products. Its offerings include green living products for your home, office, pets, kids, and personal conservation efforts.

While a recent online survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation revealed that 35% of Americans expect companies to make and sell environmentally responsible products, it’s still not a certainty that green interest actually motivates green spending at a green destination store. Many retailers will be watching as the EcoShoppe dares to test how green desire will or will not actually translate into green purchases.

One feature of the EcoShoppe that deserves attention is their use of “seed paper” for in-store signage. The store will print its promotional signs on this special seed paper (with soy ink, of course) and instead of throwing the signs away when the promotion is over, the EcoShoppe employees will cut them up and give the pieces to customers. Customers can then plant the paper scraps in the ground in order to grow wildflowers from the seeds that were embedded into the paper in the manufacturing process.

That is an inspiring example of the kind of authentic improvement that can be made in the retail paradigm by those who genuinely care. Seed paper is pretty pricey, so props to the EcoShoppe for choosing the responsible alternative over the cheapest alternative.

For now, going green is going to demand those kinds of choices which may cost more in the short-term, but should pay off in the long-term with reputation points and invaluable word-of-mouth endorsements. That one really cool choice by EcoShoppe got my attention. And now the store is on your radar too.

Other U.S. retailers that are proving their green commitment in a tangible way earned a spot on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power list for the first quarter of 2009. This EPA list recognizes American corporations that are purchasing green power to run their operations.

Wind, solar, and biomass energy are examples of “green power” which is energy that is generated from renewable resources. Businesses and consumers often have a choice to purchase green power, although to do so often means a higher utility bill. Of the top 50 green power purchasers on the EPA list, 23 of them are from the retail industry, which is a proud retail accomplishment.

Comparing the EPA list with the retail Fortune 500 list, however, provides a perspective which is not so proud. Of the 20 largest retailers in the U.S., only five of them are also major green power purchasers. Although Wal-Mart holds the top spot in the revenue rankings in the U.S., Kohl’s holds the top spot on the retail green power usage list. Since Wal-Mart takes every opportunity to brag about its “green” efforts (a/k/a cost-cutting measures), I would think if the discount giant truly cared about its greenness, that it would be quite mortified to be outgreened by a puny little competitor. Kohl's is 153 positions behind Wal-Mart in the revenue race, after all.

Did I mention that Dell and Whole Foods also purchase twice as much green power as Wal-Mart too? Not half as big, the top three green power companies have proven that they are each twice as committed.

With environmentally responsible choices available, sadly, a majority of the retail companies that have the financial resources to make greener choices are still consciously choosing not to. Unfortunately that probably won’t change in a sizable way unless consumers stage organized boycotts, shareholders invest with a conscience, or the government intervenes. Judging from the recent legislated bans on plastic bags, my crystal ball says it will be curtain number three.

Which retailers are going to contribute the most to advance the green movement within the retail industry is still questionable. Whether the green actions or inaction of retailers will get noticed is not so questionable.

Green advocates are generously vocal in both their praise and their criticism. With the unprecedented access they have to electronic media comes unprecedented accountability for retailers. Those retail organizations that make genuinely important changes will get noticed. Those that are only concerned with exploiting the trend for the benefit of their own enterprise will be noticed too.

Green retailing walks. Greenwashing talks. And Americans won’t be fooled one way or the other for long.