March 4, 2009
The Associated Press: Retailers left standing amid the carcasses of their competitors are going after orphaned customers. They're using aggressive mailers, accepting dead stores' gift cards and stocking the items that were once their rivals' best-sellers.
"The retail market is just collapsing, and so the big opportunity for sales growth is trying to get customers from stores which have recently closed," said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group.