LONDON – Decades of missteps and a brutal retail recession have hurt the British retailer Woolworth’s, which was one of the few surviving legacies of the giant F.W. Woolworth Co., a company that closed in the U.S. in the late 1990s. In mid-November, the stock price was less than £2.MORE HERE

This morning, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company was considering liquidating inventory and was looking at debtor-in-possession financing. They have also hired FTI Consulting and Kmart’s Chapter 11 firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. It now appears that dire things are on the table. But theMORE HERE

We thought that the discount store layaway was gone. But this season, Kmart is pushing it in a new series of ads. In fact, in the small print on the ads, Kmart announces that they are the only major national retailer that does it. Good idea. While cannot predict whatMORE HERE

The new edition of the FAO Schwarz catalog is out. Read our analysis of the revived FAO brand at the post on our new website. It’s called Muppetational FAO Schwarz Catalog. Visit our main site for all the posts atwww.brandlandUSA.com Questions? E-mail Garland PollardMORE HERE

Radio Shack, Reuters reports, has had an excellent quarter, in a time when other retailers have not. Wow. But let’s digress into nostalgia. It’s much more fun. As a child and as a devotee of brands, I shared a love (and frustration) with the Radio Shack (NYSE: RSH) of theMORE HERE

I was talking to a lower-level Circuit City exec in Richmond, Virginia, around 2001-02. He had just left the company. He shall remain nameless, mostly because I can’t remember his name! Wait, back on subject. So I am chatting with this fellow, and ask about the Alan McCullough era atMORE HERE

The brand Marimekko, so popular across the world in the 1960s and 70s, has returned to retail. Here, a look at their store in South Beach, Miami. It’s a full concept store, and its right off Lincoln Road. Visit them at marimekkomiami.biz. Marimekko was founded in 1951 by Armi andMORE HERE