Chain Store Age reports that the Home Depot has installed "Unleashed," a handheld wireless scanner that reduces checkout time, in about 700 of its stores. Unleashed enables associates to scan and record customers’ purchases while they’re in line. Home Depot said the application should be in all of its stores by the end of the year.

Kmart has announced a similar program titled Blue Lightning. During peak periods at checkouts, workers at Kmart stores will ring up customers’ purchases while they wait on line and give them a card that the cashier can scan and process for payment.

NIKE is opening two women-only stores in California titled NIKEgoddess. The first shop will open this October in Newport Beach, Calif. A second store will follow in March 2002 at the Los Angeles Farmer’s Market. Currently, sales of women’s apparel and other merchandise account for just 20% of the retailer’s total sales. Nike did not say how many NIKEgoddess stores it plans to open.

Jeffrey Klinefelter, senior research analyst of U.S.Bancorp Piper says, “The key to successful lifestyle retailing is approaching the shopping experience from the consumers’ perspective.” According to Klinefelter, lifestyle retailing should focus on brand awareness, fashion, and most importantly, Generation Y. This age group reportedly has more purchasing power than ever before and influences $250 billion in annual discretionary spending. Plus, they are the last demographic whose purchasing power will be decreased due to the fledgling economy, he said.

Transforming Tomorrow

Gordon MacKenzie, former designer at Hallmark Cards, shares this valuable advice, “When you come into an organization, you bring with you an arcane potency, which stems, in part, from your uniqueness. That, in turn, is rooted in a complex mosaic of personal history that is original, unfathomable, inimitable. There has never been anyone quite like you, and there never will be. Consequently, you can contribute something to an endeavor that nobody else can. There is a power in your uniqueness ? an inexplicable, immeasurable power …

But if you are hypnotized by an organization’s culture, you become separated from your personal magic and cannot tap it to help achieve the goals of the organization. In losing connection with your one-of-a-kind magic, you are reduced to nothing more than part of the headcount.”

Great words. Excellent message. Have you lost your uniqueness? Have you been dragged in and branded with your company’s cultural logo? This might be a really good time to examine what you have misplaced in the process … then go about finding it again.