Susan Chandler

Community groups that fight hard to improve their neighborhoods are often frustrated by what happens to local retailers. Stores that sit empty are a blight on the community, while too...

Museum gift shops have been a boon to the non-profit cultural institutions that created them. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, New York's Metropolitan Museum and the Art Institute of...

Talk about underhanded tactics. Its German competitors couldn't believe Lands' End Inc. would stoop so low: offering an unconditional money-back guarantee, trying to make every other retailer look bad. So...

Continuing its drive to boost productivity, Quaker Oats Co. said Monday it will shut cereal plants in North America, eliminating 1,200 manufacturing jobs or a tenth of its workforce. The...

When so-called bricks-and-mortar retailers venture into clicks-and-order, they typically create an Internet presence that reflects their company's organization. The folks who head up one product line want their own Web...

In the retail trade, it's called RTA: Ready to Assemble furniture. You know the stuff--cheap-looking plastic woodgrain computer tables and shelves that sag after a few weeks. Not anymore. Giant...

Jane J. Thompson, once the highest-ranking woman at Sears, Roebuck and Co., has a new job. She is now the president and chief operating officer of InLight Interactive Inc., an...

When Sears, Roebuck and Co. announced it was closing its State Street flagship back in 1982, Chicago business leaders worried that the retail heart of the city would never recover--with...

When it comes to running a boutique, one tried-and-true retail rule is specialize. If you're selling clothes, it's OK to offer some jewelry and accessories, but don't stray too far...

It's a puzzler--what to call Crate & Barrel's prototype store at Lincoln and Grace Avenues on Chicago's North Side. "Blueprint" was the working name for the new concept, which is...