Holiday grocery price freeze includes more products this year, but long-term affordability solutions needed
This year, Canada’s large grocery chains are freezing the price for a greater variety of items than usual before the holidays. While 10-15% more products are included in the freeze this year, the true test of affordability will come later. “How high will grocery prices be when the price freeze ends?” asks Professor Saibal Ray in an interview with CBC Radio’s As It Happens.
New Royalmount real estate development will bring greater luxury retail options to Montreal
Among the low-rise industrial buildings that line the northern end of Décarie Boulevard, a major new shopping centre is taking shape. The $7-billion Royalmount luxury retail and lifestyle centre is slated to open in summer 2024, after numerous construction delays.
Two McGill Desautels units achieve silver sustainability certification
This Fall, McGill University awarded new Sustainable Workplace Certifications to nine units. Among them, two McGill Desautels units earned the silver-level distinction: The Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM) and IT Customer Services Team.
Canada's big grocery chains face pressure to cut prices as food costs rise
Food prices rose by 5.8 per cent in September, prompting the federal government to ask Canada’s five largest grocery chains to provide a plan for how they will stabilize prices, with staple products a likely focus. “High transportation costs, inventory issues and other pressures driving up costs are subsiding,” says Professor Saibal Ray, who specializes in Operations Management.
Automated checkout technology allows workers to focus on higher-value tasks
Amazon Go, convenience stores that eliminate the check-out process, are coming to Canada. Customers can use a debit card, credit card or payment-enabled phone to enter, select and buy items, and simply walk out of the store. Amazon introduced the cashierless stores in the U.S. in 2018 and is now opening locations in Calgary and Toronto.
Bensadoun School of Retail Management Road Shows work with businesspeople in rural Quebec
The way that we shop is changing, and for small- and medium-sized enterprises, it can be challenging to keep up with the pace of innovation. But the Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM) is helping them do it. Since spring 2023, it has been hosting regional networking events that meet Quebec businesspeople where they live and work.
AI tools boost and optimize productivity in the retail sector
Artificial intelligence (AI) will give productivity a major boost in the retail sector, according Maxime Cohen, Professor of Retail and Operations Management at McGill Desautels, home to the Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM)’s retail innovation lab.
BSRM and MMA launch Data Sphere Lab
The Bensadoun School of Retail Management, in collaboration with the Master of Management in Analytics (MMA) at McGill Desautels Faculty of Management, is pleased to announce the launch of the Data Sphere Lab.
Consumers take time to adapt to frictionless check-out technology
Technologies like artificial intelligence are changing the way we shop. But change can be intimidating, and people can be reluctant to adopt it. The Bensadoun School of Retail Management’s Retail Innovation Lab provides such an example. At the highly automated Couche-Tard location on McGill campus, cameras in the store allow customers to make frictionless purchases that don’t require bar codes to be scanned. Still, many people don’t want to use them.
Couche-Tard's Retail Innovation Lab is the store of the future
AI's impact on retail is set to revolutionize the industry, from crowd measurement to price management, changing the in-store experience significantly. Certified analytics and marketing intelligence professional Christian Bourque explains how infrared technology is currently used to analyze foot traffic levels and reveal the upcoming technological frontier in retail, stating that McGill’s Retail Innovation Lab in the Bronfman pavilion exemplifies the store of the future.
CNBC looks to Dobson Centre for advice on annual disruptor list
Even in a year that venture capitalists’ go-to bank collapsed, and venture capital funding slowed to a trickle, the disruptive power of startups has never been clearer. The 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50 list was the eleventh iteration of the list, and the top spot should come as no surprise. The generative artificial intelligence company OpenAI is the maker of ChatGPT, and no new technological application has created more buzz since the dawn of social media – or even the web itself.
Vaudreuil-Soulanges entrepreneurs connect with BSRM researchers to learn retail best practices
About sixty entrepreneurs from Vaudreuil-Soulanges region joined Desautels faculty and staff for a conference on best practices in retail.
Shift to shorter commercial leases creates niche for temporary pop-up activities
E-commerce has made it possible to order almost anything online, but that has made it more challenging for brick-and-mortar retailers to attract shoppers and with more stores sitting vacant, some shopping malls have gotten creative, and added temporary pop-up activities like roller skating and haunted houses.
McGill takes 2nd and 3rd place at L'Oréal Brandstorm Canada 2023
After months of hard work and 'brandstorming', two McGill teams took the podium at the 31st annual L'Oréal Brandstorm National Competition in Canada, competing against top teams from across the country. BCom students Laetitia Doumet, Jo-Esther Abou Haidar and Andrea Salem (far right) placed 2nd, while Master of Management in Retailing (MMR) students Madison Laxer, Aditi Bali and Supreet Kaur (far left) took 3rd place.
Maxime Cohen and Saibal Ray named Top Retail Influencers for 2023
Two faculty members of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management were named to Rethink Retail’s Top Retail Influencers list for 2023. Professors Maxime Cohen and Saibal Ray were both recognized with this distinction, alongside some of the world’s t
