In Praise of 3PLs

| Ron Cain

No doubt about it, 2008 will be a challenging year for business. With the Fed forecasting inflation rising between 1.7% and 1.9% in 2008 while GDP grows at a sluggish 1.8-2.5%, companies will need to be tightening their belts and looking for ways to make a profit anyway they can.

Miles Kimball Meets Seasonal Fulfillment Challenges

| MCM staff

For gift catalogers, the holiday season is the busiest time of the year in the distribution center. We decided to check in with some mailers to see how their operations fared for the final months of 2007. Tim Little, vice president of operations for Oshkosh, WI-based gifts and housewares merchant Miles Kimball spoke with MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT

Liquidation Tactics for the Holiday Hangover

| Curt Barry

Many retailers fell well short of holiday sales plans that were fairly conservative to begin with. What does that mean? Challenges from 2007 are extending into this year during the final phase of the product life cycle: markdown and liquidation of unsold merchandise.

Potential Data Breech for J.C. Penney

| Tim Parry

Credit card holders of general merchant J.C. Penney Co. are among the 650,000 customers whose personal information may have been compromised because of a lost back-up computer tape.