Lisa Biank Fasig

Anyone who regularly goes to the pharmacy knows that the sound of a ringing phone is as prevalent as the rattle of bottled pills. Now Kroger Co. is testing a program to eliminate the jangle of the bell, while hopefully increasing the jingle of the register.

The Cincinnati-based supermarket chain is partnering with a Hamilton, Ohio, company to create a call center that will handle prescription refills – calls that pharmacists now take. The companies are calling this facility a “knowledge processing center,” which indicates that Kroger hopes to gather some good customer insights along the way.

The partnership is with Koncert IT, part of the Vora Group, a collection of companies specializing in information technology and infrastructure. Under the plan, the pilot will involve 45 call center analysts handling 14 area Kroger stores. If successful, the center could expand to employ 300.

“This will help with customers who are seeking more one-on-one time with their...

Being fair and being loyal are not the same thing. But can one engender the other?

The question hit me when reviewing J.C. Penney’s annual report, which reveals that its heady new pricing strategy, called Fair and Square, could produce a fair number of zeros in the coming months – meaning declining sales.

Penney’s approach is admirable enough. As coupons, price cuts and other deep discounts have essentially trained consumers not to pay full price (and to wonder what the full price on anything really is), the department store chain opted to walk away from the madness. Fair and Square, it said: everyday low pricing, with just two sales a month on out-of-season wares.

The company invested roughly $200 million in implementing the new strategy and retained Ellen DeGeneres to star in a series of clever commercials. But in its annual report, it warned that the strategy “could result in a prolonged decline in sales.”

Sure, part of this is the necessary warning a...

The Kroger Co., the largest traditional supermarket chain in the country, is preparing to release its fourth-quarter and annual earnings March 1, and the results will have as much to do with filled carts as filled gas tanks.

The Cincinnati-based chain, which operates about 2,500 stores under the brands Kroger, Ralphs and Fred Meyer, is expected to post its 33rd consecutive quarter of sales gains. In the third quarter, same-store sales rose 5 percent. Kroger expects similar gains in the fourth quarter.

That figure excludes gas sales, but that doesn’t mean Kroger’s fuel stations aren’t contributing to its banana and toilet paper sales. In actuality, Kroger’s fuel is driving store sales, because purchases in the store translate to pennies off the pump, thanks to Kroger’s loyalty program. Buy $100 worth of groceries, gets 10 cents off a gallon.

And with a gallon approaching $4, more and more people are willing to shop where their cereal fortifies their gas tank, as...

Matthew Broderick is giving us a time-out during the Super Bowl, and for a middle-aged, recession-weary public, the timing couldn’t be better.

Broderick, if you haven’t heard, is reviving Ferris Bueller, the school-cutting, life-loving teen of the 1986 movie. It is for just a brief time, but it is the quality of the moment, not the length, which matters.

The effort comes in the form of a commercial for Honda. That’s right, instead of the wickedly gorgeous, cherry-red Ferrari 250GT California, Ferris ditches work and gets his kicks in a red CRV.

But it works, not surprisingly. With smart writing, an eclectic soundtrack and a terrific cast, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off introduced lines that are still being used 26 years later, from “Bueller? Bueller?” to (more resonantly) “If you had access to a car like this, would you take it back right away?”

To our delight, many of these lines (as well as the Yello song “Oh Yeah”) are used in the ad, no doubt...