Office Depot Introduces New Retail Concept With Opening Of M2 Store
Office Depot, one of the world's largest resellers of office products, has announced the grand opening of its new store in Venice, Florida, which is the first in the country to incorporate the Company's new retailing format called Millennium2 (M2).
M2 was developed from the ground-up by a cross-functional task force hand picked by Office Depot Chairman and CEO Bruce Nelson. The task force was given one mandate: reinvent the retail model by creating a store that is less expensive to open, more efficient to operate and easier to shop.
"M2 is intuitive, logical and designed specifically for the way people make purchase decisions," Nelson said. "Products are grouped in highly visible, strategically located pods, with core supplies at the outer perimeter of the store, and furniture and technology at the center to better support consultative sales."
The store's color scheme is vibrant and cheerful, and incorporates a contemporary color palette featuring bright orange, lime green, aqua and purple. Other features include a new way-finding system making it easier to navigate the store and find what you want; low center fixtures offer clear sight lines; an open format that allows employees to find and assist customers more efficiently; combined check-out and copy areas create a unified service offering and selective use of gravity-fed or spring-loaded shelving to keep products organized.
General Mills Offers Favorite Kids' Cereals With 75% Less Sugar
In response to changing consumer needs, General Mills is offering reduced-sugar versions of Trix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cocoa Puffs, with 75% less sugar then the original cereals. The reduced-sugar cereals were developed using a blend of sugar and Splenda, a non-caloric sweetener made from sugar. Reduced-sugar Trix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cocoa Puffs contain just two or three grams of sugar per serving. These General Mills cereals are the fist kids' cereals to be made with Splenda, but they follow in the footsteps of other kids' products including Pedialyte, fruit drinks, yogurt and fruit cups.
"We're thrilled to offer parents the option of choosing popular kids' cereals with 75% less sugar," said Abbie Willing, Marketing Manager, General Mills New Enterprises. "It's a dramatic reduction, especially considering that there's not taste compromise."
GE Bug Lite Eliminates Bugs From Summer Entertaining
GE Consumer & Industrial has introduced the GE Bug Lite, which contains a special coating that makes light invisible to flying bugs, so they aren't drawn to it. The yellow pigment used to coat the GE Bug Lite, filters out any light below 490 nanometers making the light it transmits non-existent to insects. Ideal for outdoor gatherings, GE Bug Lites are available in both incandescent and post light bulbs. They are available in 40 watt, 60 watt and 100 watt packs and have a life of 1,000 hours.
Toys 'R' Us Camp Geoffrey Offers Creative Summer Activities
Toys 'R' Us is inviting kids and their parents to Camp Geoffrey this summer. The Camp is the perfect place for parents to spend time with their kids as they explore the power of play by participating in fun and creative summer activities, from creating their own book to building their own birdhouse. All activities at Toys 'R' Us are free and several include a gift for kids.
Coca-Cola Names C. Fruit Chief Marketing Officer
The Coca-Cola Company has promoted Chuck Fruit to the position of Chief Marketing Officer. Mr. Fruit brings more than 30 years of marketing experience to the position, with key leadership roles at The Coca-Cola Company, Anheuser-Busch and advertising and media agencies. He joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1991 as head of Global Media Services and has held positions of steadily increasing responsibility. Most recently, he was Sr. V.P., Integrated Marketing.
IPG Appoints Semerau Dir. Sales & Mktg. For Imaging Products Group
IPG Imaging Professionals Group, a leading provider of full-spectrum visual merchandising services, has appointed Robert Semerau to Director of Sales and Marketing for the newly created company division, Imaging Products Group. Prior to joining IPG, Semerau was the Owner of Visual Merchandising and Marketing Services in Mission Viejo, CA and CEO of Visual Accent, Inc. in Irvine, CA.
IPG's President and CEO, Rick Farrell, said, "Mr. Semerau's many years of experience in the store planning and visual merchandising industries brings an impressive track record of marketing and sales success to IPG. This appointment is an example of IPG's commitment to aggressive penetration of the visual merchandising and store fixturing markets."
VKF Renzel USA Corp. offers a line of high quality floor standing leaflet displays suitable for showrooms, information areas as well as trade shows. The stands are designed to hold letterhead leaflets. For more information, contact VKF Renzel USA Corp., 2420 E. Oakton Street, Unit E, Arlington Heights, IL 60005; (Tel) 866-736-9351, (Fax) 847-228-9801, (Web site) www.vkf-renzel.us.
Mercury Online Solutions, a worldwide provider of digital signage network solutions, is working with Sharp Electronics to produce digital signage solutions ranging from basic, screen systems to enterprise-wide networked installations. For individual displays, the two companies are offering a basic Digital Signage System In A Box package that includes Sharp's 37-inch LCD monitor and Mercury Online Solutions' FRED Solo Edition single screen digital signage software and M1 Digital Media Processor. "Mercury Online's signage solutions, along with Sharp's leadership in LCD technology, enables us to offer our customers superior, easy-to-install, long-lasting digital signage solutions," said John Eisenhauer, President, Mercury Online Solutions. "This relationship will help our customers install turnkey digital signage applications that will last for years." For more information, visit Sharp's LCD Products Division Web site at www.SharpLCD.com, E-mail ProLCD@SharpSEC.com or Mercury Online Solutions' Web site at www.mercuryonline.com.
Trion Industries has introduced custom manufacturing options to its otherwise-stock Shelf Works™ EWT Shelf Management System. The stock Expandable Wire Tray System adjusts from 5" to 12" wide (mini version from 3" to 6") to fit any individual product as well as diversely-sized families of products. New extra tier options permit merchandising of more items, more coherent product presentation and enhanced brand image and category integrity. Spring-fed pushers on each level permanently face all lanes of product. For more information, contact Trion Industries, Inc., 297 Laird Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702-6997; (Tel) 800-444-4665, 570-824-1000, (Fax) 570-823-4080; (E-mail) info@triononline.com, (Web site) www.triononline.com.
San Diego, CA-based American Technology Corporation has developed Hypersonic Sound (HSS) and Neo Planar audio technologies for displays and exhibits. HSS represents the "laser beam of sound," specific trade show attendees can be targeted with messages and no one else, even within a few inches of that individual, will hear them. The Company's NeoPlanar speaker NeoPlanar ™ is a thin film magnetic transducer, which can be built as thin as 1/8" or less. The NeoPlanar speaker offers a dramatic elevation in the quality of sound in exhibits and displays. American Technology has used the technologies in its own displays, with remarkable results. For more information, visit the American Technology web site at www.atcsd.com.
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