Traditional boundaries on retail merchandise continue to blur with more retailers cross-selling goods in a variety of categories including general merchandise, food and specialty products. Retailers, regardless of what they sell, must be tuned in to trends across the retail spectrum. In keeping with this emerging trend, all retail segments from specialty apparel to grocery will be featured at Everything Retail, the National Retail Federation’s 93rd Annual Convention & EXPO, January 11-14, 2004, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.
At NRF’s Convention, the leading innovators and experts in the field will examine Retail’s Big Show, recent trends and technologies in grocery retail. Additionally, for the first and only time in North America, Metro AG, the world s fifth largest retailer, will recreate its Future Store in an enormous EXPO Hall exhibit. The 13,000 square foot replica of Future Store, a working retail technology laboratory and fully functional store in Rheinberg, Germany, will display numerous technologies that will alter the consumer shopping experience.
In addition to traditional NRF sessions focusing on the needs and challenges of discount, department, and specialty stores, specific sessions will also be devoted to grocery and food retailers, including:
H. Lee Scott, President and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores will deliver the Convention’s keynote address on Sunday, January 11th at 2:30 p.m. A visionary businessman and leader of the world's largest retail company, Mr. Scott will share his thoughts on our industry and the strategies that keep Wal-Mart at the forefront of retail.
Dr. Hans-Joachim Kvrber, CEO of METRO Group will discuss the future of retailing on Monday, January 12th at 8:30 a.m. Dr. Kvrber will discuss the key success factors for the next ten years in retailing, and will elaborate on how METRO Group is preparing for the future. Metro's Chief Information Officer, Zygmunt Mierdorf, will also be on hand to discuss RFID and other new technologies that have made Future Store this decade's most innovative and compelling development. Metro has a slightly different view of the industry than other retailers, promising to make this a provocative and insightful presentation.
Maggie Miller, CIO and Business Transformation Director, J. Sainsbury plc will talk about the radical step J. Sainsbury took by allowing its customers to help them design a new store from the bottom up. During the session, Pushing the Boundaries of the Customer Experience at 3:15 p.m. on Monday, January 12th, Miller will share the company’s experiences and discuss new research that identifies what customers really want, and showcase how several retailers are using customer insights to push the boundaries of the shopping experience.
Harry Balzer, Vice President of the NPD Group and author of Eating Patterns in America will explore America’s eating habits, food trends over time, and impact on the retail landscape in a 12:15 p.m. workshop on Sunday, January 11th.
Jeremy Hollows of Carrefour SA and other panellists will describe how one set of trading partners, Carrefour and Procter & Gamble, used existing global standards to synchronize GTINs to reduce overhead, translate descriptions, and eventually become fully global data synchronization compliant during Synch and Swim: Item Data Management From Source to Shelf. The session will be held Monday, January 12th at 2:00 p.m.
Robert Bofman, General Manager, Sam’s Wine and Spirits will participate in the panel session, Retail Productivity, Is it An Oxymoron? Analysis of two highly productive retailers and what they have done to produce incredible results in productivity of staff, merchandise handling and distribution, and customer service, putting them in a league of their own. These real life stories of retailers who have unlocked the key to success will be part of the Retail Strategy Track on Monday, January 12th at 7:30 a.m.
The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalogue, Internet and independent stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 20 million employees about one in five American workers and 2002 sales of $3.6 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 states, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com
