When the Radio Shack CEO was found to have faked his CV by exaggerating his academic record, he was allowed to resign with a million dollar payout, including $58k for unused leave.

On Tuesday last week a t 8:45am, 400 employees at Radio Shack 's, Texas, headquarters received the following e-mail:

"The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately, your position is one that has been eliminated."

The unofficial translation: "You're fired."

In its defence, the company says it warned employees during a company-wide meeting in late July that layoffs were imminent, and that staffers would be told "electronically."

Radio Shack won responses such as: “What were they thinking? This has to be one of the crassest, classless and most tone-deaf corporate moves I've seen in a long time. And that says a lot, since as a finance professor, I'm staunchly pro-business.”

A triumph of efficiency. Termination benefits will cost the company US$11m, but instead of spending 30 minutes with each team member, which might have cost less than $50k, they went down the email track.

They saved $50k, less than the dishonest CEO 's holiday pay. I wonder how they will calculate the cost of the internal and external damage to the company.

It's hard to win customers. So when you pull one to your store - how about locking them in.

Customers of a UK Lidl supermarket are having their cars wheel clamped if they leave the car park before commencing their shopping - and then charged £120 (A$300) to be unclamped.

Clampers working for the supermarket have been pouncing on cars the moment the driver leaves the car park - even if they are just nipping over the road to an ATM to get cash to pay for their shopping. Up to eight customers were clamped one afternoon.

We can think of few better ways to lose a customer for life.

Silence from Tooronga. Still drifting, the CML share price can't quite reach $14. It jumps some days then slowly falls.

My wife, who still owns 762 CML shares, received a letter from the Chairman on 31 August, albeit dated 22 August. It was more about how well they had done in the last five years than the current bid. There is nothing more coming out of Tooronga as the bid is dissected.

So while we await the response from Coles' board, we are left speculating where a march to private equity might end.

After initially appearing defiant, the board of Colorado eventually accepted a bid from the Hong Kong based private equity raiders following the offer of a few cents more and a special tax effective dividend. The final offer is only two cents more than the initially mooted bid. They appear to have picked up the company by throwing in a set of steak knives for each shareholder. Maybe bidders only need to hold the stare long enough until the defending board blinks.

The move is bold as Affinity was unable to get their nose into the Colorado books. They are buying blind. The deal also ends speculation that Just Group may bid.

If you want to own a piece of the Australian retail pie you will need to learn how to invest in private equity funds (which you may already do through your super fund).

The Age reports that the rush to private equity is not over. But this is far from bad. “A report from the Boston Consulting Group says private equity could teach public companies several things about running a business. Lessons include strong alignment between managers and highly sophisticated and well-informed owners, engaged and effective boards with powerful industry expertise, a laser-like focus on creating value within five years and giving managers more equity so that they will behave more like owners.”

New management at Coles may have to work with lowered credit rating. A move of the Coles' credit rating from BBB towards COD appears to be a likely consequence a takeover by KKR. However, If KKR et al can do for Coles what they did for Toys'R'Us, it will be a happy ending.

The big winners appear to be shareholders who, on current pricing are likely to receive about a third more than the price just after Fletcher's great leap forward announcement, and bankers who will reap a $500m windfall.

There is also a rumour in the SMH today that Woolies are sniffing around some of the Coles businesses, possibly wanting to buy Kmart (hard to believe – too close to BigW) Target (maybe) or Officeworks (makes sense at the right price).

The bidders are also reported to be talking to Bain Consulting, which played a role in Woolworths' Project Refresh about value added initiatives for Coles.

Orex is a specialist recruiter of retail leaders.

We have a huge bank of 62,000 retail managers – and it's run by the best technology.

We know about the leaders, planners and buyers who aren't scouring the papers looking for a new job. If the right candidate isn't in our databank; someone who can point to the right person will be there.

At Orex, you deal with recruiters who speak your language. Recruiters who have worked in senior buying and planning roles.

To learn what Australia's leading specialist retail recruiter can do for your business, call Rob Lake or Christine Sturgess on 03 9349 8989.

Not long ago, Apple's iTunes was seen as the world's most powerful retailer and likely to remain in a dominant position. However, t he market for digital music continues to evolve at breakneck pace.

SpiralFrog is a new music download website which will offer Universal Music Group's massive catalogue available for legal downloading in the US and Canada free of charge. It is a similar model to the one Napster adopted post court case.

The company has signed a deal to allow free downloads of UMG's entire artist line-up, saying it can offer the music for free as the site will be support ed by advertising. Universal artists include Mariah Carey, Eminem, U2 and Kanye West.

SpiralFrog will launch in beta later this year and will give iTunes a run for its money.

If similar services arrive in Australia ,  it may result in  music retailers, including the beleaguered Sanity, re-think ing their music download kiosk business model.  Kiosks may turn out to be a temporary aberration instead of the industry's saviour.

Harvey Norman has launched a music download service in conjunction with Destra Corporation, Australia 's largest digital music provider. The service, Channel GO launches with gift vouchers (to be sold only in Harvey Norman stores) enabling the purchase of songs and entire albums from the service.

Destra is an aggressive player in the online market. This week the company acquired media agency Brand New Media.

Social networking site MySpace.com is moving into web retailing and the merchandise is digital music. Under a new arrangement with a digital music services provider and licensing company, MySpace will offer independent musicians the chance to build online storefronts and sell their music to other community members on MySpace.com. This represents a small shift to a more consumer driven market for music. Musicians will be more independent and the record company contract will be less critical. However, the marketing grunt of the big labels will still be a driver.

The recent reduction in iPod pricing, with retailers offering 30 - 80% discounts across the player and accessories range, suggests a new model on the horizon.

Mother always said I should never talk to strangers. However, talking to strangers may be a key driver of sales – particularly online.

More online retailers are following Amazon's lead in posting consumer reviews, both flattering and flaming, of products they sell, and directing shoppers to sources of the most highly rated items.

A report, Retail Marketing: Driving Sales Through Consumer-Created content, finds user-generated reviews and ratings increase loyalty and purchased frequency and reduce returns for online jewellery retailers. The number of online buyers who cite customer ratings and reviews as the most useful shopping site feature has more than doubled from 2005 to 2006, the study finds.

Review sites are becoming a force in the auto sector. Reviews of new cars were generally written by motoring journos who were influenced by the schmoozing of manufacturers. Consumers are not so gullible. When it comes to used cars, consumers can provide large sample reliability information.

Macy's is to beef up its e-commerce site, Macys.com, with consumer reviews of all brands the company stocks. With the initiative, Macy's will join several other predominantly brick-and-mortar retailers, including Sears and Target, which have added consumer-created content to their e-commerce sites.

Macy's reviews will be rolled out on all their product categories in the coming months. The site will use a technology platform provided by Bazaarvoice, which provides ratings and reviews for other online retailers including CompUSA, Overstock.com and PetCo.

But what consumers are reading may not be kosher. Some companies are employing bloggers and reviewers to post favourable material. Get caught doing that and you risk being flamed online.

Rare fashion buying opportunity based in the City of Churches.

Long established national fashion chain currently undergoing re-definition with an even tighter focus on its target customer. Your chance to join a small, tight and stable team committed to developing the best ranges to meet customer expectations. Work directly with the Buying Manager; be mentored, challenged and rewarded. Push back, put your ideas forward and argue your case.

Be involved in every dimension of product development, range definition, inventory management, marketing strategy and merchandise direction. You will need to know what you're on about and be full of confidence to convince us you understand fashion and the market.

If you can tick all these boxes then we need to talk:

Here's a great opportunity to have real impact in a small team where your talent and contribution will not go unnoticed. Up for a challenge? Well, get on your bike and apply NOW. Send your application to 5112.OREX1@hiredesk.net.

Any questions? Then please contact Paul Fetterplace at Orex on 03 9349 8989

Also worth a look:

•  Premier international brand, first Australian store, your opportunity to manage and grow from the ground up.

•  Looking to build a planning career?

•  Quintessential retail brand management role for experienced retail marketer or brand manager looking for something quite different.

Millers Retail

In the ongoing apparel business:
Sales up 10% to %510m
EBITDA up 49% to $50.6m
Business lost $13.8m, but should be the last of the red ink
Shares up 22% in August and 30% for the year

Flight Centre

Revenue $1b, up 11.6%
EBITDA $150m, up 4%
NPAT $80m also, up 4%
11% increase in selling staff drove sales up 13%
Worst may be over.

David Jones

David Jones has announced the reintroduction of their dividend reinvestment plan for the next three years. The funds will be used to cover the costs of the three new stores.

Super Cheap Auto & Repco

A report today that Super Cheap Auto might be shopping for Repco shares.

The Market

Brandish uses a parcel of retail related stocks to measure our industry. The list comprises; API; Brazin; Coles Myer; Colorado; David Jones; Flight Centre; Billabong; Harvey Norman; JB HiFi; Just Group; Metcash; Millers; Repco; Rebel Sport; Reject Shop, Super Cheap Auto; Symbion Health; Wesfarmers and Woolworths. We report monthly on progress.

The retail investment market has been jumping around in August led by Coles (+23%) and Millers Retail (+22%).

Since January, the best performed stock has been The Reject Shop and David Jones, both up more than 50%.

The Brandish unweighted and unscientific indicative retail investment rose 6% for the month, driven by Coles, Millers, Super Cheap Auto and David Jones.

Wegmans is America 's top grocer according to US Consumer Report.

Wide aisles, fresh product and lots of checkouts won the day.

The overall ranking was based on service (helpfulness of staff and checkout speed), perishables (quality of meat, produce and fresh-baked goods), price and cleanliness.

"Our employees take our motto very seriously: Every day you get our best," chief executive Danny Wegman said in a statement.

Accolades have become the norm for the company, which sometimes doubles as an attraction for out-of-town visitors.

Wal-Mart scored well with people shopping for staples.

Employers need to offer the right training to retain staff and boost productivity, as nearly a million workers in the UK are voting with their feet and moving to companies who will invest in them.

According to the ‘Train to Retain' report (quoted in Retail Bulletin) one in four workers from small and medium sized UK enterprises, say that they have left, or would leave, a job because of poor training and career prospects.

Melbourne 03 9321 5000

13 Sept Advanced Visual Merchandising
19 Sept Professional Retail Selling
19 Sept Recruiting staff & HR Principles
26 Sept Retail Financials
26 Sept Lead & Manage

Sydney 02 9290 7141

18 Sept Professional Retail Selling Skills
25 Sept Visual Merchandising and Secrets of Display
26 Sept Managing Retail Financial Fundamentals
27 Sept Managing Retail Financial Fundamentals

ARA Training Calendars for Victoria and New South Wales.

In the past two weeks, Rod Williams of Push Retail has written about aspects of successful retail roll-outs and refurbs. He has discussed planning, reviewing and resourcing.

This week Rod writes about systems and processes.

Every aspect of the development process needs to be documented thoroughly and in a generic format - a brief; as opposed to a spec - that can be applied to different future scenarios.

The brief needs to answer the questions that are likely to arise. Anyone involved in the development process should be able to pick up the brief and apply or interpret it to a specific site to produce a site-specific solution - without having to phone anyone for any help. Although getting this good can take several years.

Don't think for one minute that you can do it all yourself. Because if you try to do it all yourself, you'll be so busy doing it - that you'll never have time to reflect and to improve. You'll be the only expert on whom never-ending demands will be made to work faster and harder – which will give you even less time to establish those processes that you know you should have established earlier.

As soon as it is clear that your concept has got legs, start building your team and the necessary expertise (as flexibly as possible) around you; immediately!

Outsource to specialists - for the flexibility and for the expertise. Develop a team of specialist consultants that become part of your team and work with you to not only develop the next store but work with you in the “review and improve” process. Don't think that you and your internal team are suddenly experts in Design, Traffic Management, Mechanical Ventilation, Town Planning or Construction Management. Tap into those who are trained in these areas and who also, like you, understand retail.

Call Rod Williams of Push Retail on 03 9415 9413 for concept, development and roll-out.

Experienced retail recruiter Laura Celli has joined Orex.

Laura has more than six years' retail experience, including Area Management. She moved into recruitment in 2004, specialising in retail.

This ever smiling lady will focus on retail operations management roles.

Call Laura on 03 9349 8989.

I recently read in a blog:

One 2006 graduate, who preferred to remain anonymous, was turned down for a summer job based on the contents of her MySpace page. Doing background checks is nothing new. Employers have always done some kind of digging into potential employees' pasts, even if it was just a Google search. Now employers are becoming wiser and have begun using social networking and blogging sites in addition to more traditional background checks.

Will social networking site checks become part of the employment process? What are the moral and legal implications of checking on what is, after all, someone's leisure activities?

Are these checks even useful or just “noise” to confuse the decision making process? Will they eventually be put in the same basket as graphology, astrology and numerology as aids in making sound employment decisions?

A $50 million dollar expansion of its customer contact centre in Iowa and the combination of existing inventory management systems onto a single platform will help Nordstrom Inc. achieve $1 billion in web sales within six years, the company says.

"Our online business has experienced rapid growth and we are committed to building a billion-dollar business within four to six years,” says Nordstrom Direct president Jamie Nordstrom.

Nordstrom notes it spends about $150 million every year support ing and upgrading back-end and e-commerce systems. “The company's updating of its direct business inventory systems will tie in with the store system, creating a single view of inventory across channels,” Nordstrom says. “This will result in a more seamless shopping experience for our customers whether they choose to shop online, in store or by phone.”

Monash University Australian Centre for Retail Studies is running their Strategic Value Optimisation in Retailing program in Melbourne during late October.

Learn how to effectively blend science and art in a multi-channel setting to leverage greater value from all components of an integrated retail offer.

This engaging 5 day residential senior management development program is designed to provide a world-class educational experience under the guidance of academic experts and retail industry consultants from the Retail Management Institute, Santa Clara University, California, USA.

It is ideal for senior managers who are key decision makers in retail and retail related businesses including: Managing Directors, Chief Information Officers, Chief Finance Officers and General Managers particularly in the areas of Operations, IT, Marketing, Merchandise, Distribution, Finance, Strategy and Business Development.

Further details are available here or by calling Lenore Harris at ACRS on 03 9903 2455.

Among Australia 's ASX 200 companies, there are ten male board members for every female. There are 33 male CEOs for each female. Women make up 12% of executive management positions in those companies. This is up from 11.4% in 2004.

Australia lags behind the countries with which we like to be compared. US (16.4%) South Africa (14.7%) Canada (14%).

Companies fail to make the most of talented female managers, even when women follow in the footsteps of their male counterparts. Little has changed in 30 years, writes Kirsty Simpson in The Age.

Australian retailers need to step up the pace and take advantage of a new global trend – multi-channel retailing – in order to successfully compete with international businesses, according to the Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS), who will be exhibiting at Shopfit Display & Design and Retail Business Technology (RBT), held concurrently, 19 – 21 September 2006, Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre.

Multi-channel refers to the diversity of media available to retailers to market to, sell to and service their customers, including printed press, TV (public, pay-per-view and in-store), mobile phone messaging, catalogues and perhaps the fastest growing channel, internet retailing.

Multi-channel strategies, the latest retail technologies, and a variety of shop-fitting solutions will be available to Shopfit D&D and RBT visitors, in line with the show theme – “Optimising Retail Performance”.

The ACRS will be exhibiting at Shopfit / RBT, and will be available to discuss multi-channel retailing and ACRS' new “Strategic Value Optimisation in Retailing” program.

The ACRS says that multi-channel customers shop more frequently and spend more than those who use just one purchase channel. Recent research by UK-based Zendor documenting the evolution of the traditional consumer revealed 83 per cent of male shoppers and 77 per cent of female shoppers claim to be multi-channel consumers.

“These days, being a good retailer requires you to work smarter rather than harder. It's all about integrating, leveraging and optimising your people, operations, promotions, channels and revenue to deliver value to your customer,” says Lenore Harris, Program Director Membership and Marketing, ACRS.

In Australia, multi-channel retailing is still a relatively young concept, but with the enormous growth of new competitors through entities such as eBay, multi-channel retailing is something Australian retailers need to get their head around pretty quickly.

In addition to their exhibition presence, the ACRS is the Conference Partner for the National Retail Forum, Australia 's premier retailing conference which runs alongside the Shopfit Design & Display and Retail Business Technology Exhibitions.

Swedish/Australian retailer kikki.K has opened its first international boutique in New Zealand.

The Auckland boutique is the company's eighth opening in five years. The retailer has gained a cult following since first opening in Melbourne in 2001. The NZ store has been trading for a couple of weeks.

In 2002, Kristina Karlsson opened her first boutique in Melbourne Central. kikki.K, (that's lower-case ‘k'-i-k-k-i-dot-upper-case-‘K') named after her childhood nickname and last initial, was an immediate success, striking a chord with Melbourne's design-conscious consumer. Not long after, the boutique was named Melbourne 's Most Innovative Store by the Lord Mayor. In 2003 Kristina was approached by Chadstone Shopping Centre to bring her product to the exclusive retail hub and by Christmas the doors of her second boutique were opened, proving to be an even bigger success! In 2004 kikki.K opened its first interstate store at Bondi Junction. By 2005 a second Sydney boutique was unveiled at Chatswood Chase, soon followed by Brisbane 's first kikki.K at Queens Plaza.

Earlier this year kikki.K opened a ‘pop-up' boutique on Bourke Street Mall.

Briefs

• RBA leaves interest rates steady
• Fuel discounts are not just for Grocers
• Asda rejects recycle bins not from charities
• How to sell to men
• Taller people smarter
• Change is not always slow
• The muso