The Retail Review - Virginia Retail Merchants Association

The Retail Review
Vol. 49, No. 5 October/November 2011
VRMA Annual Membership Meeting Held Oct. 7 - 8, 2011
The Virginia Retail Merchants Association recently
held its 106th Annual Membership Meeting at the Westin
in Richmond. An important aspect of the weekend was
the annual auction held to benefit the Virginia Retailers
Political Action Committee (VARPAC). Funds raised
during the silent auction are second only to the voluntary
contributions of the membership in conjunction with
their dues payments. Funds from VARPAC are used to
ensure the election of “business friendly” candidates.
For the third year an online auction was held in conjunction with the onsite silent auction. The online auction affords participants an opportunity to link into VRMA member’s
web sites and do additional shopping. During the
Silent Auction, Delegate Chris Jones was recognized as VRMA’s Legislator of the Year for his
effort on e-fairness in Virginia.
Prior to the business portion of the Annual
Membership Meeting, Deputy Director of External Affairs & Policy Development Christy Morton gave an overview of the Governor’s “2011
TAKING TIME TO POSE
Opportunity at Work Agenda.” She reported
CNBC ranked Virginia #1 as a place to do business; and small businesses represent 96% of all businesses in Virginia.
Following Christy Morton, Dr. Bob Holsworth, founder and president of Virginia Tomorrow, gave his observations on national and Virginia politics relating to the upcoming
state elections and the presidential election of 2012. During the business portion of the
meeting, resignations were accepted from Frank Berry, Wayne Sale and Phil Blackmon.
Immediately after the Membership Meeting, the VRMA Board of Directors met to review the annual audit, ratify the 2011-2012 budget, and elect officers. All officers serving
for 2010-2011 will serve for a second term. They are Chairman – Ken Vaughan; Vice
Chair – Greg TenEyck; 2nd Vice Chair – Tom Burch; Secretary – Mitzi Batterson; Treasurer – Allen Melton; Past Chair – Tom Zapf; and President – Laurie Peterson Aldrich.
The Spring Board Meeting will be held April 25, 2012. The date for the Annual Membership Meeting will be announced shortly.
Calendar of Events
ELECTION DAY
NOVEMBER 8, 2011
GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION
JANUARY 11, 2012
DAY ON THE HILL
JANUARY 31, 2012
SINE DIE
MARCH 10, 2012
SPRING BOARD MEETING
APRIL 25, 2012
LEGISLATOR OF THE
YEAR
2
ANNUAL MEETING
SPONSORS
2
NRF ARTICLE
3
CHAIR CORNER
4
NEW MEMBERS
4
VARPAC GOAL
5
DATA THEFT ARTI-
6
LYNCHBURG RMA
NEWS
7
LEGISLATIVE LOOKAHEAD
8
VRMA NAMES DELEGATE CHRIS JONES
LEGISLATOR OF THE YEAR
One of the many reasons this year was important to retail is because of actions such as
those taken by Delegate Chris Jones from District 97, which includes parts of Chesapeake
and Suffolk. Delegate Jones carried the budget amendment in the House to request that the
tax department provide draft legislation (or the tools needed for a draft) to create e-fairness
in Virginia. It is with this in mind that Virginia Retail Merchants Association selected Delegate Jones as the VRMA Legislator of the Year.
Delegate Jones worked tirelessly during session to try to get this into the budget. While the
budget amendment did not make it into the House budget, it did make it into the Senate’s
and then into conference. Additionally, Delegate Jones sent a letter directly to the Virginia
Department of Taxation requesting the same information after session and the response
back was favorable. As a pharmacist and retailer, Delegate Jones is a retail advocate. Delegate Jones is also a former VRMA Retailer of the Year.
Delegate Jones was acknowledged at the VRMA Annual Membership Meeting; however, he was on pharmacy duty
that weekend and unable to attend.
106th Annual Membership Meeting Sponsors Recognized
The 106th Annual Membership Meeting was a huge success and for that, we say thank you to all who
helped in any way; and especially, we say thank you to these sponsors:
Platinum
Giant Food Stores, LLC
Macy’s
RMA of Charlottesville
Gold
Consumer Healthcare Products Association
Coca Cola Bottling/Mid-Atlantic
Food Lion
International Council of Shopping Centers
Luxottica/LensCrafters/Pearle Vision
Peebles Department Stores
Walgreen Company
Wal-Mart
Silver
J.C. Penney Company
Kroger
National Retail Federation
Retail Industry Leaders Association
Page 2
Safeway Stores, Inc.
Southern States Cooperative
Target
Trans Union
Virginia Association of Health Plans
Bronze
Alticor Corporation
Best Buy
Equifax, Inc.
Schewel Furniture Company
Gift Bag Contributors:
Dominion Dental
Kroger
Luxottica/LensCrafters/Pearle Vision
Mary Kay
Sands Anderson
Universal RX
Walgreen Company
Eager to Strike a Deal While It’s Hot,
Holiday Shoppers Plan Plenty of
Self-Gifting This Holiday Season
Washington, October 19, 2011 – Armed with savvy shopping skills and a renewed focus on value, consumers this holiday season will shop at a variety of locations and channels as they scope out ways to get
the best bang for their buck. According to the National Retail Federation’s 2011 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions
Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, holiday shoppers say they plan to shell out an average of $704.18 on holiday gifts and seasonal merchandise, down slightly from last year’s $718.98.* NRF is still forecasting overall holiday retail sales to grow 2.8 percent during the months of November and December to $465.6 billion.
Additionally, nearly six in 10 holiday shoppers (59.9%) say they plan to take advantage of retailers’ sales and discounts to
make additional non-gift purchases for themselves and their families during the holiday season. The average person will spend
approximately $130.43 during the holiday season to take advantage of sales and discounts on apparel, electronics, home goods
and other items for themselves or a family member, up from $112.20 last year.
“When it comes to retail growth this holiday season, slow and steady wins the race – and the same is true for shoppers,
who are meticulously calculating the best ways to stretch their dollar,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “Knowing
their customers are more focused than ever on value, retailers will entice shoppers with promotions that go beyond discounts,
whether they’re promoting free gifts with purchase, an extended warranty, or stellar customer service.”
According to the survey, the largest portion of a consumer’s holiday budget will go toward gifts for family members, with
the average person expected to shell out $403.26 on kids, parents and other family members. Friends, co-workers and even the
family pet can expect something nice this year as well; holiday celebrants will spend an average of $68.23 on friends, $21.06 on
co-workers, and $23.39 on other gifts. Consumers will also spend on decorations ($46.73), greeting cards ($26.52), candy and
food ($96.75), and flowers ($18.23.)
With wish lists in hand and a set budget in mind, people this year plan to shop around with a variety of retailers for holiday gifts and merchandise. Department stores, with unique private-label offerings, will see an increase in traffic over last year
(56.9% vs. 54.5% last year), as will clothing or accessory stores (35.2% vs. 33.6% in 2010), drug stores (21.1% vs. 18.9% last
year), and grocery stores and supermarkets (48.8% vs. 46.7% last year), and most will head to discount stores (66.1% vs.
65.1%.) Crafts and fabric stores will benefit from those looking to make personal and thoughtful gifts (17.5% vs. 16.1% in
2010).
“In 2009 it was all about personal and practical and last year consumers wanted to treat their loved ones to something
special - this year, it’s a little bit of both,” said Pam Goodfellow, Consumer Insights Director, BIGresearch. “Limited budgets
and a desire to make the most out of gift-giving will drive consumers to shop at a variety of retailers while also thinking outside
the box for great gift ideas.”
For recipients, gifts small and large are expected to make big impressions this year. For the fifth year in a row – and at the
highest level in the survey’s history – 57.7 percent of shoppers say they’d like to receive a gift card this holiday season. Other
items on consumers’ wish lists include clothing or clothing accessories (50.0%), consumer electronics or computer-related accessories (35.4%), jewelry (22.8%), and personal care items (19.3%).
When asked which one factor will be most important when shopping this holiday season, sales or price discounts largely
win out (41.6%), but customer service (6.0% vs. 5.3% last year) and quality of merchandise (14.6% vs. 12.7% in 2010) are continuing to become more vital components in consumers’ decision making processes, highlighting the growing importance of
value when it comes to gift and everyday shopping.
As the internet quickly becomes a destination for time-strapped shoppers, more people will seek out retailers’ holiday
deals on the Internet this year; nearly half (46.7%) will buy online, up from 43.9 percent last year. Additionally, the average holiday shopper plans to do 36.0 percent of their shopping online – whether they’re comparing prices, researching products, or
actually making a purchase. Online shoppers plan to spend more as well - the average holiday online shopper will spend about
22 percent more than the average adult. Adults aged 25-34, many of whom have small children and crave convenience, will
complete 43.7 percent of their holiday shopping online, the most of any age group.
Each year, nearly 40 percent of consumers begin their holiday shopping before Halloween, and this year is no different
with 38.9 percent of celebrants having already begun or planning to begin holiday shopping before October 31. Another 40.0
percent will begin shopping in November, 17.0 will hit the stores the first two weeks in December and 4.1 percent will procrastinate until the final two weeks of December.
According to the survey, 62.2 percent of Americans say the U.S. economy will affect their holiday spending plans. To
compensate, consumers are expected to comparison shop to save a few dollars. The survey found 5.7 percent said they would
comparative shop using their mobile device more often, up from 3.7 percent in 2010, and nearly one-third (32.1%) will comparative shop online more often, up from 30.9 percent last year.
Chair Corner — Ken Vaughan
As we enter our fourth
quarter, we are optimistic
Christmas 2011 retail sales
will surpass last year’s
sales. I wish each and every
retailer in Virginia much
success this holiday season.
Elections will bring
new faces to our Virginia
legislature and our staff and
lobbyists will be working
diligently to make the new
legislators aware of the critical need to support legislation beneficial to all retailers in the state. Legislation
which would be detrimental
to retailers in our state will
also be a topic of discussion
as we continue our push to
make Virginia a most retail
friendly environment with
both sales and bottom line
profits. Please make us
aware of any items you feel
are vital to our industry.
We can be reached by
mail, fax or email.
During our busiest and
most important time of the
year, please remember
those less fortunate by supporting charities who work
so hard this time of year to
help those in need.
Thank you for your
membership and your participation in the VRMA.
Please recommend your
fellow businessmen in
your community to join
with you and the
VRMA in making Virginia a more friendly
retail environment.
Visit VRMA on
Facebook
The Retail Review is published bi-monthly
by the Virginia Retail Merchants Association, Suite 809, 701 East Franklin Street,
Richmond, VA 23219; Phone: (804) 6490789; Fax: (804) 644-8762;
www.virginiaretail.org
President
Laurie Peterson Aldrich
Chairman
Ken Vaughan
Peebles
First Vice Chairman
Greg TenEyck
Safeway
The Retail Review is intended to be a
source of information for VRMA members.
The contents are advisory in nature and not
intended to be legal advice.
Page 4
I wish you all a happy
and prosperous holiday season and my wishes for a
warm and relaxing celebration with family and friends
in the way you prefer to celebrate the season.
The VRMA
Board and Staff
thank Ken &
Carol Vaughan
for their excellent photography work during the Annual
Membership
Meeting.
Thank
ol
you Car
& Ken!
Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year from
your Chairman.
VRMA Welcomes These New
Members
Big Sound Productions
Amherst, VA
Community Consignment
Lynchburg, VA
Scotts Miracle Grow
Richmond, VA
Billingsly Insurance
Lynchburg, VA
Dominate Local Markets
Lynchburg, VA
Spirit FM
Lynchburg, VA
Boudoir
Lynchburg, VA
Lynchburg Symphony
Orchestra
Lynchburg, VA
Successful Innovations,
Inc.
Lynchburg, VA
Brenda Moore – Associate
Broker
Premier Home Solutions
Lynchburg, VA
Lynchburg, VA
The Shoppes at Ashwood
Goode, VA
Goal $10,000
VARPAC Silent Auction
With Your Help We Exceeded Our Goal!!
There are many reasons to belong to VRMA, but the primary reason
most of our members join is that strength comes from unity. Every year,
the Virginia General Assembly and the United States Congress are busy
writing, introducing and enacting into law thousands of pieces of legislation that affect retailers in one of two ways – either by eroding the bottom line or by enhancing it. You cannot afford to take time away from
your business to stay abreast of all of these measures, nor work to ensure that those that harm your bottom line are defeated while those that
may enrich are ratified. The VRMA can!
SERIOUS BIDDERS
It is for this reason that the Virginia Retailers formed a Political Action Committee a number of years ago. Contributions from individuals and corporations to this PAC are distributed to legislators that have business-friendly ratings.
Election and re-election of these legislators makes it easier for the VRMA to ensure the success of your bottom line.
VARPAC Individual & Corporate Sponsors:
Ammar’s
AutoZone
Ben Franklin Crafts
Food Lion
Giant Food Stores, LLC
Hair Cuttery
The Home Depot
James River Cellars
J.C. Penney Company
Kroger
Luxottica/LensCrafters/Pearle Vision
Macy’s
Mary Kay
Peebles Department Stores
Safeway Stores, Inc.
Sears
Schewel Furniture Company
Southern States Cooperative
Target
Yum! Brands
Wal-Mart
Walgreen’s
STANDING GUARD
Support Retailers this Election Year
Keith Hodges is the Republican candidate for the House of Delegates seat in the 98th District. This district includes Essex, Gloucester, Mathews, Middlesex, Parts of King & Queen and Parts of King William. Keith owns the
Gloucester Pharmacy and was designated as the Retailer of the Year by VRMA in 2008. To learn more about
Keith Hodges and to make a campaign contribution, visit his website, http://www.votekeithhodges.com/.
Israel O'Quinn is the Republican candidate in the 5th District for the Virginia House of Delegates. The 5th district includes Bristol
and Galax Counties, Grayson County, part of Smyth County and Washington County. Israel has worked for K-VA-T Food Stores,
the parent company of the Food City retail supermarket chain, since 2006. He currently serves as the Director of Government &
Community Affairs. To learn more about Israel O'Quinn to contribute to his campaign, visit his website—
http://www.oquinnfordelegate.com/ .
Page 5
Small Businesses become new targets
for data theft
John Mayleben, RPN senior vice president, technology and product development, writes a
monthly column on retail technology. Contact John at jmayleben@retailers.com.
Most of us hear about the really big data breaches that hit large retailers, governments and health care facilities. They
make national news when they occur. But what we don’t hear about are all the “little guys” who increasingly are becoming the targets of cyber thugs.
For a number of years the small and medium size businesses that accept cards as a form of payment were flying under the radar of the bad guys. But as large businesses have tightened up their card data handling procedures and bad
guys are having a more difficult time hacking into their systems, the smaller companies have started to attract unwanted attention.
More and more of these smaller businesses are seeing hacking attempts and, in some unfortunate cases, successful
theft of cardholder data. According to the U.S. Secret Service and Verizon Communications, Inc.’s audit unit, there
were 761 known breaches in 2010, up from 141 in 2009. Of these, 63 percent (482) were from companies with 100 or
fewer employees. Visa has estimated the majority (95 percent) of the data breaches it now handles are from small and
medium size businesses.
A recent news story in the Wall Street Journal illustrated the negative impact that this could have on your business.
In one case, a restaurant in Washington State ended up going out of business due to the cost of the audit and expense of
cleaning up the mess from its data breach. In another case, a Chicago area newsstand hacked by someone using a Russian server ended up spending $22,000 on “investigations and security improvements.” The initial problem was traced
back to weak password security. In both of these cases, the businesses were very small compared to the data breaches
you hear about on the evening news. Could your business, even in the best of times, absorb a $10,000–$20,000 hit to
the bottom line?
Realizing that small businesses look to their processors for assistance, last year we started providing automatic insurance coverage for data breaches for all of our merchants. For merchants that process their credit card transactions with
us, we provide $100,000 in insurance coverage per merchant identification number (MID) (with a maximum of
$500,000) as part of their monthly statement fee.
This insurance will cover the audit, the fines from the card associations and the costs to reissue the cards that were
compromised. If you aren’t using a processing solution that provides this coverage, you should either contact your insurance company to explore getting a policy that would cover you, or consider changing to a merchant processing solution that covers you for this type of event.
More and more large companies are “cleaning up their act” when it comes to protecting card data. While that’s good,
it has moved small and medium size businesses into the bad guys’ crosshairs. Are you protecting your data, and are
you insured against a breach?
VRMA Retail Reviews
In an effort to Go Green, we would like to start sending the bi-monthly Retail Review
electronically to those that would prefer to receive it this way. If you are interested in
receiving your Retail Review electronically, please send us an email at
vrma@virginiaretail.org. For those who would like to continue to receive a hard
copy of the newsletter do nothing and we will continue to send it out via mail.
Page 6
DECK THE HALLS AND SUPPORT
OUR FOUNDATION—Lynchburg RMA News
The Retail Merchants Association of Lynchburg, in partnership with River Ridge Mall, is
holding its second Annual Holiday Wreath Auction fundraiser. Proceeds from this auction
benefit non-profits in Region 2000 (Lynchburg, Bedford, Amherst, Campbell County and
Appomattox) through grants provided by the RMA Foundation.
This is a great advertising tool for the businesses and organizations donating the wreaths.
For the cost of a wreath (and any optional bonus items), their company name will be posted
on a sign underneath for a full 6 weeks.
Still not sure why you should support such an event? The Foundation’s mission is to help improve the quality
of life for many in the community who need a “hand up.” We do that by providing annual grants to not-for-profit
organizations in the Greater Lynchburg area (Lynchburg, Amherst, Bedford, Campbell County and Appomattox). Though we fund a variety of organizations, the main focus for our Board of Directors is on health, hunger,
housing, education, abuse and rehabilitation issues. Since its inception, the Foundation has placed over $2.5 million dollars back into the local community through non-profit assistance.
How can you help? The answer is simple…. BID! Watch our website, www.LynchburgRMA.com, and place your
on-line bid(s). The wreaths make wonderful Christmas gifts. Despite the current economy, people WILL be spending money in celebration of the season. We hope to show them how their gift can continue giving long after the
holidays are over! Bidding opens November 12th and ends at 10 pm on December 16th. We will be happy to ship
your wreath for the cost of postage. With your help, we can make this event a huge success because the bottom
line is… the more money we raise, the more money we can give away.
MEDIA TRADE SHOW The Retail Merchants Association of Lynchburg hosted its 2nd signature Media Trade
Show on Tuesday September 13, 2011 from 12 noon – 6 pm at Phase 2 in Lynchburg. The event was cosponsored by The Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce, and provided in partnership with our local Media
Partners.
Many small and mid-sized retailers will do as much as 20-40 percent of their annual sales in the final two
months of the calendar year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), the nation's largest retail trade association. Other service businesses, such as restaurateurs, caterers, travel agents, etc., are also dependent on
doing brisk business each holiday season.
Media partners provided information about their products, as well as tools for businesses to be successful in
budgeting and decision making when it comes to advertising dollars. Representatives from SCORE, the Small
Business Development Center, RMA and the Lynchburg Regional Chamber were on hand to assist with budgeting
questions and worksheets. Vendors: WLNI, WSET, Prototype Media (Lynchburg Living, Lynchburg Business, Bridal Guide, Family Guide), The News and Advance, Bedford Bulletin, Wheeler Broadcasting (K92, Star Country,Q99,
Vibe100) Spirit FM, and Clear Channel Radio (WJJS, WYYD, Steve FM, Sunny FM). Over $5,000 in media door
prizes were awarded.
BUY LOCAL On June 21, RMA kicked off summer in style by holding a Summer Soireé at Winridge Manor in
Madison Heights with all proceeds supporting our BUY LOCAL Educational Campaign. Local businesses provided
Music, Southern Cuisine, refreshing drinks, a Hat Fashion show, Cigars and a Silent Auction. The basic educational campaign targets local adults and college students with a series of 4 posters that are being distributed
throughout Region 2000. Our objective is to educate individuals on the importance of buying local and supporting
your local community. Posters can be viewed on our website.
WORKSHOPS By popular demand, two Marketing & Branding Workshops were facilitated by Laurie Gulluscio,
Marketing & Membership Director (RMA Lynchburg). Approximately 60 people participated and walked away with
valuable information on getting their company message out front and center!
Page 7
Legislative Look-Ahead
VRMA is always working for you. These are a few of the issues we
have been addressing since session. As always, if you have questions or concerns give us a call.
 Accelerated Sales Tax Payments – we are working to eliminate these or negotiate with them to get the dealer discount
back.
 Dealer Discount – we are working to restore this to 2010 levels.
 E Fairness – we will be working to bring fairness between
online retailers and brick and mortar stores.
 Food Stamps staggering – we are working on staggering these
benefits, rather than all the dollars being issued on the first of
the month.
 Tracking of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine - NPLEx – we
will be working on legislation related to the tracking of these
products.
 Energy Star & Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holidays –
these expire this year, we will work to restore.
 Non-Fire Safe Cigarettes – there is an effort to require a date
by which you must sell all non- fire safe cigarettes.
 ABC Regulations – we are part of the working group looking at
a rewrite of all ABC regulations.
 Civil Demand – we will be working on a bill that will require
parents to be responsible for the losses incurred by their children
Virginia Retail Merchants Association
701 E. Franklin Street, Suite 809
Richmond, VA 23219
We are preparing to face the following issues again:
 Felony Threshold Increase – giving criminals the ability to steal
more from you with the same penalty
 Plastic Bags more bans and taxes
 Immigration issues - mandating e-verify on employers
 Health care mandates – increasing your cost for insurance
 Gun rights trumping property and employers’ rights
 BPA bans
 BPOL requests for changes
Since session, we have been involved with such issues as:
 WIC and eWIC as they prepare the roll out of electronic WIC
benefits for grocery items
 Local cigarette stamping
 Emergency Preparedness Business Subpanel
 Building alternations required for the disabled, blind and the
deaf
 A salt reduction task force – as we fend off legislation against
our retailers and manufacturers.
We are currently working on this year’s Legislative Policy. If
you would like to make any changes to the policy, please visit
our website at www.virginiaretail.org for a current copy and the
Change Form. Look for the 2012 Legislative Policy in the mail in
December.
With the General Assembly session right around the corner,
be sure we have your email address or fax number for our Capitol Facts Report. You can update this information by visiting the
website and clicking the button to update information.