Susan Chandler

Retailers are getting tired of hearing it. Today's consumers are less interested in buying clothes than investing in the stock market, taking vacations or otherwise pampering themselves. So savvy shopkeepers...

Music fans and the World Wide Web are a hot combination. Already there are more than 50,000 Web sites created by fans of such groups as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and...

Bad news for retail executives: The life cycle of a retail concept has shrunk dramatically. In the 1970s, new retailers averaged 16 years before earnings growth began to stagnate, according...

Pots and pans on Oak Street? It may sound a little bourgeois for Chicago's toniest shopping boulevard, renowned for its pricey international fashion offerings. But the contrast doesn't seem incongruous...

Seeking to stem its rising losses, Montgomery Ward & Co. on Thursday asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge for permission to close its 44 specialty-format stores. The outlets affected are 33...

It's time to look past that spiky green Mohawk and extensive body piercing. With fewer and fewer adults venturing into shopping malls, retailers and mall owners should be doing a...

Call it a potentially dubious honor. Sears, Roebuck and Co. Chairman Arthur Martinez has been named chairman of the National Retail Federation, the industry's largest trade group. It's certainly a...

When Frank filed for bankruptcy last October, he thought he was closing a dark chapter in his life. He had no idea he might be opening a new one. Frank,...

In a drastic move to slow the hemorrhaging at Montgomery Ward & Co., Chairman Roger Goddu fired 20 percent of his corporate staff Wednesday, totaling 400 employees. The cuts are...