From McKinsey, published in The Wall Street Journal, comes a list of ten trends into which successful companies will tap. These trends will not influence your business this year. They are all factors that will come into play aver the next two decades. Like the Internet, some will take decades to become overnight phenomena.

• Massive realignment of economic activity
• Unless the public sector gets efficient, taxes will increase to horrendous levels
• A billion new customers will enter the market in the next decade
• Technology will transform the way we interact
• Talent strategies need to be global
• Businesses will be subject to more scrutiny
• The environment will be more strained
• Emerging business models will flourish
• Scientific management will grow
• Knowledge management will become critical

Companies need to understand the implications of these trends alongside customer needs and competitive developments. Executives who align their company's strategy with these factors will be the best placed to succeed. Reflecting on these trends will be time well spent.

According to the ABS, retail sales rose slightly during March, and were well up for the first quarter. Food and hospitality led the increase. Clothing, soft goods and recreational goods; products tending to be more discretionary, all slumped.

The Cashcard retail activity index suggests spending continued to rise modestly in April, although down on last year.

The Age believes consumers are being cautious as petrol price and interest rate hikes bite.

Whether or not shoppers are shopping, investors seem to be shopping for shop stocks as retail shares bounced on the prospect of a fistful of dollars in the budget.

In Oz it’s resources stocks driving the indices, but in the US it’s the retailers driving the bourse north.

The tax cuts announced in last night’s budget should free up some dollars for discretionary spending, helping many retailers.

These tax cuts, coming with adjustments to the tax brackets, are unlike some previous cuts that were quickly swallowed by bracket creep. So we are to have dollars going into the wallets and purses of taxpayers, possibly undoing some of the recent damage to consumers’ willingness to spend following hikes in interest rates and fuel costs.

These threats to consumer confidence still loom. The RBA may not be finished with interest rate rises just yet and inflation still may not be dead. So shopkeepers and merchants; enjoy it now. It may not last.

Orex can find you the people who AREN’T looking for a job.

Generally the very best people are not scouring the papers for a new job.

The best performers, well rewarded and happy in their role don’t subscribe to job boards. These passive candidates need active recruiting.

Orex has a huge databank of 60,000 retail managers. Around half the people who can seriously call themselves retail managers in Australia are on our system.

We couple this with world leading software to give Orex clients access to a great field of candidates.

The third element is the Orex recruiter – skilled in finding the right candidate and convincing them to move.

This means you meet the very best people for your role – not just the desperados.

If you want to hear more of what Orex can do for your business, call Rob Lake or Christine Sturgess on 03 9349 8989.

Henry Thornton presents interesting or important articles and comments on the market for oil, its price and consequences of changes in the price of oil. The extracts go right up to January 2005 and the shock as oil passed $55 a barrel.

Members of Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania’s finance department and private-sector economists say it's a good time to shun hysteria, take a deep breath, and look rationally at the reasons for the price hikes and their likely effect on the economy and on energy policy. They examine why prices are up, and what can and can’t be done about it. They also look at the global impact of rising oil prices.

Retailers should not try to be all things to all customers.

Make up your mind about whether you want to lead in price; product; service; access or overall experience. You can probably excel in only two of the five. In spite of successes including Wal-Mart and Bunnings, only a few companies ever kick goals by excelling in three of the big five. Retailers that attempt to excel in all five areas are liking to excel in none.

Even “Average” can be special enough to pull customers.

Six fried dim sims, a bucket of chips and a Diet Coke. We all know one; the people who believe all the bad work can be undone with a single act of redemption.

Now it’s a marketing strategy. Indulge; then repent.

Appealing to the both the inner sinner and the inner saint can bring success for retailers.

The first of a series of executive lunches; Adding Retail Brand Value through Social Responsibility features keynote speaker, Graeme Wise, Managing Director of The Body Shop Australia.

The Body Shop has combined the challenge of increasing the value of its brand with socially responsible strategies towards the community and the environment. Join Graeme as he outlines the company's priorities for 2006 and shares his thoughts on the power of being a socially responsible corporate entity.

In today’s competitive environment, retailers need to do more to capture the consumer dollar. This is the chance to tap into key brand building strategies of a successful company. It is also a great day to network with other key people in the industry. For bookings and queries, please contact the ARAV on 03 9321 5000.

The world of retail is a vast place, much larger than the clothes and groceries that might immediately come to mind. If a product can be sold, there's probably a store somewhere specializing in selling it. And if there's a store selling it, it's likely there's a franchise opportunity in that field. Franchisees are spoilt for choice, and many of those choices are retail.

Here are nine franchise concepts being offered in the US at the moment.

Franchising is the chosen format for many Australian businesses wanting to grow; and is seen as a safer way in for people wanting to buy themselves a job.

Americans spent $US286 billion last year via the web. New technology makes comparison shopping easier. Two new comparison engines, SmartShopper (for PC only) and ShopWiki, to look for deals. These are leaders in a new wave of engines that aim to tap into the online market by revolutionizing online comparison shopping.

SmartShopper is designed as a register, and ShopWiki is a crawler.

There is a follow up to last week’s Brandish piece about privacy issues surrounding item level RFID.

Privacy groups are unhappy with Levis, but the solution might be a new IBM chip that only works over a limited distance, while still allowing the tag to be active to manage returns & recalls and as a loss prevention tool. Consumers can tear a portion of the tag off, reducing its range to around 10 metres.

One part of this business will be well known to you as one of our first online retailers.

While online gifting is still an important part of their business, it is not the driver it once was.

Now, and in the future, sourcing, ranging and fulfilling customer expectations for employee incentive and recognition reward programs is becoming seriously big business. Some of their new best customers are the biggest and best known corporate entities.

This role is about managing, leading and setting the strategic direction for their total product offer. Inspire and direct a small buying team as you set the product agenda and, with your team, determine a product mix that achieves all their online objectives. Help move the focus away from what might be “nice” in the range to what delivers “sell through” and dollars in the bank. We’re looking for an analytical mindset that will drive down costs while nurturing those areas that truly deliver better profitability.

You will report directly to the CEO and be an integral member of the management team. Have a voice in where the business is headed and how it should get there. We’re looking for strategic input with the ability to implement, and a history to prove it.

Any questions? Call Paul Fetterplace on 03 9349 8988 for a confidential discussion or click here to apply

For more exciting retail career options, click here.

The computer shop was once a small business in a low rent location and staffed by people who wore corduroy and thongs with socks.

It has gone mainstream. Big guys Officeworks, Dick Smith and Harvey Norman are being joined by JB HiFi in the retail IT sector as the company starts selling computer products through its 60+ retail outlets.

Female supporters of the Geelong Cats feel the hoops on the club’s jumper do not flatter the female supporter. Few men, and no women, look good in a Wests Tigers jumper.

The female sports fan is a largely ignored market. Females wanting to show their allegiance to a team have very few options.

A Los Angeles basketball fan is doing something about that. There is clearly an opportunity here for an Aussie designer to get a toe hold in what could be a big market

The family that prays together… No, it’s the family that eats together that leads to better outcomes for the children.

The pressures of two working parents; coupled with heavily scheduled school kids; has led to a trend away from family meals in many Australian households. Regular family meals have become an oddity in the US. One of the great strengths of Jewish culture is Friday night dinner with the extended family. It’s where children get a chunk of their education and absorb the culture.

"The more often kids have dinner with their parents, the less likely they are to smoke, drink and use drugs," said Joseph Califano Jr., a former U.S. health secretary and current head of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, which conducted research linking family contact with substance abuse.

Retail stores are picking up on the idea and will start telling shoppers about the findings and encouraging them to share meals together at home, instead of separately or at restaurants.

Brandish has been going free of charge each Wednesday to the inboxes of around 30,000 Australian and New Zealand retail managers since February.

Our intent is to publish items of interest to retailers, and bring them to you promptly.

We are pretty sure you don’t want a collection of press releases. So, if we write of the triumphs, travails or tribulations of retail businesses, we will only do so if we think our readers can learn something from the story.

But all this is only our assumption. We would love to know what you expect from us.

Many readers have sent us feedback about our content, and some have sent us contributions or leads. We would love more input and feedback.

If you have any thoughts about what you would like to see in Brandish, email the idea. If you have any off the record stories you would like us to follow up (without identifying or involving you) send them via the link on the website or to offtherecord@brandish.com.au . Or you can call Rob Lake on 03 9349 8989

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. is equipping 1,000 of its stores with 35,000 web-enabled point-of-sale devices and taking other steps to integrate the Internet into its store operations.

The web-enabled POS system will be installed by the end of the year and allow store employees to access all of the inventory on JCP.com J.C. Penney also is testing a new concept in at least one store.

The test involves placing web-enabled computers and large flat screen monitors in high traffic store areas such as the children’s department. If the customer is looking for a particular bedding set or matching accessories and can’t find a particular item or style, she can use the computer station to click on JCP.com and see the available inventory in all colours and sizes, says John Irvin, president of JCPDirect, the company’s Internet and catalogue division.

Australian apparel manufacturers and retailers have tweaked the sizing of garments as customers became taller and wider. In this country it is generational change that has resulted in the new size definitions rather than market pressures. But when a customer goes from being a size 8 when in High School to being a Size 0, in spite of 7kg of weight gain, something is awry.

Jerry Seinfeld fixed the problem by changing the size on the label on his jeans from 32 to 31 inches.

In what surely must be a vanity play, US retailers are introducing tiny sizes. Size 0 for an adult? As the article says: 'To me, a size 0 is antimatter; it's something devoid of any physical reality."

Monash University Australian Centre for Retail Studies is running their Strategic Planning Management in Retailing program in Melbourne in late May and Singapore in June.

This is the most highly regarded development program for senior management and directors of retail and retail-related companies in the Asia Pacific region. Professors Larry Ring and John Strong, two of the most highly respected retail management educators in the USA, lead the 5 day residential programs.

Participants are provided with the tools to develop winning retail strategies and an integrated framework for retail strategic resource management. This framework facilitates better management of retail operations for higher sales and profits. The program explores the eight ways to win in retailing, latest global trends and the strategies used by some of the most profitable retailers in the world.

Further details are available here or by calling Peter Phillips-Rees on 0409 427 517.

• Afraid of cooties, shoppers are less likely to buy handled goods.
• Donut King parent, Retail Food Group is to float, fattening its war chest for further growth.
• Mobile phone hard drives will kill MP3 players.
• Earlier reports that punters were deserting The Body Shop following its sale appear to be premature.