Contract negotiations between players and team owners over money, health insurance and more almost lead to the cancellation of the 2011-12 NFL season – a football fan’s worst nightmare. With the NFL Lockout officially over and the biggest game of the year looming, consumers are quite ready to put all that to rest and celebrate the upcoming matchup between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants at Super Bowl XLVI.

As a perfect excuse to party on a Sunday, usually a big no-no for working adults, consumers this year are already mapping out the best laid plans for their soirees. According to the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association’s 2012 Super Bowl survey conducted by BIGinsight, not only is there a bigger appetite for buffalo wings, potato chips, chili, pizza and frothy beverages, there’s a healthy hearty appetite for new TVs!

Of the estimated 173 million people who plan to watch the game, 5 million people will buy a new TV for the big event – hand-in-hand with the research that also shows more people will either host or attend a party this year. In addition, nearly 11 million of those watchers will be plugged in to the game from their favorite restaurant or sports tavern.

With the average person expected to shell out more than $63 a person on food, team decor, furniture and TVs and team apparel, retailers are in for a treat this year. Total spending is expected to reach an all-time high of $11 billion this year – the most in the survey’s nine-year history.

One can’t mention the Super Bowl without also mentioning the commercials. Last year we were blown away by companies like Best Buy and Volkswagen and Doritos. Who will it be this year? We’re already getting a few sneak peeks into some, have you seen these?

Talk about anticipation! And apparently I’m not the only one looking forward to sharing a few thoughts of my own with my colleagues around the water cooler come Monday after the game. According to the survey, more than one-quarter (25.8%) of the people who plan to watch the game say the commercials are the most important part of the game experience.

This year, RAMA’s Executive Director Mike Gatti is going to once again share his top five Super Bowl commercials the day after the game, Monday February 6. Make sure to check back and see which ones he liked best and a few that he thought didn’t quite impress the best. We can’t wait to hear what your favorites were.

Kathy Mance, NRF Foundation Executive Director

Anyone who knows Kathy knows her love of animals, her love of cooking, her uncanny ability to remember phone numbers, her endless energy, and – above all – her loyalty and dedication to NRF. Kathy retires from NRF tomorrow, and we couldn’t be more appreciative for all she’s done. During her tenure, she’s been an outstanding colleague, an outstanding friend, and an outstanding mentor. She’s contributed to NRF as a lobbyist, and served as the Vice President of Public Affairs before being named Vice President of the NRF Foundation, NRF’s non-profit education and research arm. She’s led the NRF Foundation since 1994, and in March 2010, she was named Executive Director. Needless to say, she leaves quite a legacy.

She’s led initiatives that took NRF Foundation’s educational and training programs to China and Egypt. She’s responsible for the highly-lauded Intercollegiate Retail Challenge with our partner American Express and the recent launch of NRF’s – and the industry’s first – student association: NRFSA. Her commitment to bringing awareness to the diversity of retail careers, and her dedication to ensuring the industry has a highly-qualified, highly-skilled next generation of workers, has been her passion for the past 17 years.

We’d love to have you share your thoughts and memories of working with Kathy Mance over the past 35 years. We know her impact has reached well beyond NRF’s staff, so please join us in sending her well wishes.

Retail’s BIG Show 2012 was also our most successful event, not just by the numbers, but by the palpable energy and optimism felt everywhere from the EXPO floor to the Super Sessions. With retailers finding innovative ways to empower customers, expand across the globe and erase the lines between online, mobile and in-store retail, the coming year will be an exciting one for retail. We can’t wait to see how much farther retail has come at next year’s BIG Show.

Watch the video below for highlights from Retail’s BIG Show 2012. We’ll see you next year!

This morning I attended JCPenney’s Fresh Air presentation where Johnson, along with Michael Francis, the company’s new president, discussed where the department store is headed. After two hours of listening to their plans for rethinking, repositioning and reimaging the JCPenney we know today, I have to say I’m impressed, impassioned by the prospect of long overdue change and – at the same time — impatient with the nearly four-year blueprint outlined.

Among the changes that stand out most will be those around pricing, promotion and personality. On the pricing front, Johnson insists that coupons, doorbuster deals, 20, 30 and 40 percent off and hourly pricing are things of the past at JCPenney. The new strategy, dubbed “fair and square,” consists of three kinds of pricing: everyday prices, which he describes simply as great prices everyday; month-long values, which consist of the most desired products for that month being offered at a single sale price for the entire month; and best prices, items marked way down that will be offered every first and third Friday.

“We think it’s time to reclaim our price integrity,” Johnson says, admitting that the legacy strategy made the company look “desperate. We’re committed to regaining consumer trust.” Prices have been restructured to be more in sync with the actual prices shoppers have paid for items. So, for example, towels that were priced at $10 in the past – and actually sold for a little more than $3 — will now be priced at $4 every day. Ballet flats, priced at $40 in the past, will now be sold for $30. On a month-long promotion, the price would drop to $22; when they need to move the goods out the door, the best price would be $15.

Promotions will be scaled back considerably – from 590 in 2011 to 12 between February 2012 and January 2013. Believing that the customer “lives in a monthly cycle,” JCPenney will rotate promotions on a similar schedule, spending $80 million per month. Ultimately, the goal is to get shoppers in the store once a month.

As to the third front, Francis discussed the reinvention of the brand’s persona. The logo, which has been housed inside a box of some sort for decades, has been reinvented. The box is now more of a frame, and the JCP logo resides in the upper left corner. The design was created to telegraph a new view and to showcase the following attributes: honest, simple, relevant and distinctly American.

Product changes will be ongoing over the next few months, with more overt shifts expected to begin in August. Johnson hints that items will be “less basic, more trend-right – and well-priced.” Look for more partnerships with well-known brands, including recently announced link-ups with Martha Stewart, Liz Claiborne and Nanette Lepore. Beginning in August, JCP will start transforming the store with the opening of in-store shops at a rate of at least two per month. Plans call for building out the shop concept over the next three-plus years, with the goal of having 100 unique shops when the transformation is complete. Inside the shops will be new fixturing and a more precisely edited assortment of product. Soon to exit stage left are rounders jammed with items that Johnson and company admit did little to showcase product.

Finally, Johnson and Francis envision a new spin on the final “P” – place. The blueprint calls for two distinct areas in the store – Main Street and the Town Square. Main Street refers to the perimeter of the store where the shops will be housed. The Town Square, situated in the center of the store, will be a place that “makes the shopping experience better.” Exactly what that means isn’t likely to be known until the first re-imagined store opens next year.

The changes begin February 1 – or 2-1-12 — and will be ongoing for the next four years, says Johnson, who equates the rollout with the time it takes for most students to complete a college education. The ultimate goal is to become America’s favorite store and, while he admits it’s a lofty objective, Johnson also perceives it as an extraordinary opportunity.

Can Johnson make it happen? Will the partnership that Johnson and Francis had at Target be the secret to making this work? Will lightning strike twice? Too soon to say, but I can tell you this: the presentations I heard today were a detailed blueprint for change and a breadth of fresh air in a sea of same old same old. Johnson, clad in tan slacks and a pullover sweater, seemed approachable and forthcoming. He didn’t shy away from the obvious elephant in the room: his relationship with the Apple brand and how it does or doesn’t correlate with where JCPenney is headed in the future. There were no promises for the financial community, but there was an overwhelming sense of the commitment that he and Francis bring to the endeavor.

The department store business has shown signs of renewed life over the last few years, but there isn’t a retail expert or enthusiast who would say things are great. Change is good. Change is long overdue. And while as a journalist I bring a healthy amount of skepticism to the table, I feel pretty good about what the future holds for JCPenney – even if only half the plans outlined today come to fruition.

That quote doesn’t surprise me given what Walter Robb was doing just two days earlier at Retail’s BIG Show. Robb and John Mackey, Co-founder and CEO, were being honored by the National Retail Federation as Retail Innovator of the Year. Even though Mackey wasn’t able to be there, Robb didn’t accept the award alone. He brought his team to the stage, where he introduced each of them and noted that he was accepting on behalf of the 65,000 Whole Foods team members. Obviously “supporting team member happiness and excellence” isn’t something they simply list as a core value on their website. Watch the video below to see why, in addition to being a great employer, Whole Foods received this year’s award.

“Retail’s BIG Show for the last two days has been very big,” Lundgren said. “Judging by this audience, I’d have to say in our next guest it’s about to get much, much bigger.”

As chairman of the NRF Board of Directors, Lundgren drew the honor of introducing the keynote speaker at this year’s convention, former President Bill Clinton. Clinton wasn’t the first member of his family to speak at the BIG Show – Hillary Clinton set that precedent in 2004 while a member of the U.S. Senate before becoming Secretary of State. But he was the first current or former President to appear, and helped boost attendance to a record 25,500.

“This is a bigger crowd than I usually draw,” Clinton quipped as he came on stage. “It makes me feel like I’m President again.”

Clinton spoke on “Embracing Our Common Humanity,” addressing the issues of globalization ranging from the economy to social implications.

“We live in a world today where all the borders look more like nets than walls,” he said. “We are interdependent to a degree we have never been before.”

“The one thing sure about the future is that we’re going to have to share it with a lot of people. We can share the prosperity or we can share the misery. It’s up to us.”

Clinton acknowledged the importance of retail to the nation’s economy and job creation, citing statistics from an NRF study that found retail accounts for close to 20 percent of GDP and supports one in four U.S. jobs.

Clinton, in fact, is among the millions of Americans who found their first jobs in retail.

“I could have been one of you,” he said, explaining that his first job was at age 13 working in an Arkansas grocery store. The teen-aged Clinton also launched his first business venture as a micro-retailer, convincing the grocer to let him sell comic books on the side – feeling “like a millionaire” after grossing about $100 on a collection of vintage issues but realizing now that they could have sold for thousands.

Clinton said the recent recession and still-challenging recovery have changed the way people think about jobs and the economy.

“I never doubted for a minute that I could make a living and almost everyone in my generation felt the same way,” he said. “The recent economic crisis has changed shattered that.”

But helping create jobs can help individuals regain that level of confidence.

“If you are leading the country out of the recession, you are doing something far more important than putting people back to work and putting money in their pockets,” he said. “This economic crisis is about more than economics. It has gone to the core of people’s sense of who they are and what they’re worth.”

Clinton drew a round of applause after praising Brazil as a “thriving democracy” with one of the greenest environmental policies in the world. Brazilians were among the largest contingents of international visitors at this year’s convention. He also thanked Lundgren for Macy’s agreement to sell artisan products from Haiti in its stores, helping that nation recover earthquake damage.

Clinton’s speech was followed by a question and answer session with Lundgren, covering topics from where he had done his Christmas shopping – mostly in small, local shops – to immigration policy, international trade and health care reform.

Clinton said U.S. manufacturing should focus on high-end, high-tech work rather than low-level jobs “we probably can’t save anyhow” and that doing so would remove the need for protectionist trade policies. He welcomed educated immigrants who can use their skills to help create jobs here, and said Congress should try to fix health care reform rather than repealing it if it survives a Supreme Court case scheduled to be heard this year. He also endorsed corporate tax reform that would eliminate many deductions and credits in return for lower rates, but said the research and development tax credit should be maintained.

If you were in the audience for President Clinton’s keynote, what was your biggest takeaway?

Restaurateur Danny Meyer discusses hospitality at Retail's BIG Show 2012.

Even if you’re the absolute best at doing what your business is supposed to do, Meyer said, your customers will only give you 49 points out of a 100. You can earn the other 51 points with only one thing—good hospitality.

Both restaurateurs and retailers can’t succeed without doing a good job of making their customers feel good. Your steak might be great, but people can get a great steak in lots of places. They go back to Meyer’s establishments because of how they are made to feel.

Hospitality is an intangible thing that’s tricky to explain. Meyer describes it as making the customer feel like you’re on their side. The concept is also a difficult one to execute because hospitality is one size fits one. You have to read your customers’ minds.

The key to getting it right is building a team that has incredibly high emotional skills – a collection of specific traits that contribute to what Meyer calls a “Hospitality Quotient.” Like a high IQ: You have it or you don’t.

“You can’t teach hospitality,” Danny said. “It means they’re someone who’s at their happiest when they’re making someone else feel good.”

Retailers today are all about the customer experience, but all the technologies and tools on the EXPO floor won’t help you win if you don’t have the right people and culture.

“For those who are looking for the most powerful differentiator in terms of creating an experience…you have to stock your store not just with the best stuff, but the people who live for making other people happy,” Meyer said.

David Lauren describes "merchantainment" at Retail's BIG Show 2012.

For the next hour, we were treated to a show-and-tell of high gloss marketing campaigns that were more than just eye candy. An iconic brand that represents timeless style, Ralph Lauren has also revolutionized retail using technology, creativity and their own passion for innovation.

They’ve been at the front of the pack since digital became an option, seeing an opportunity to tell a story online when many retailers saw the internet as a place that would hurt store sales. And the retailer has been pushing the envelope ever since, investing heavily in video, editorial content, a Minority Report-inspired interactive store window, mobile apps and perhaps most fantastic of all, a 4D spectacle on the streets of London and New York. Most recently, the brand used Fashion Week as an opportunity to buy out all the ad space in the New York Times iPad app—not for a day or a week, but for the entire month of September.

The brand story is a storybook tale told by great storytellers. David described the driving concept as “merchantainment,” the seamless blending of merchandising and entertainment. Ralph Lauren himself envisions a lifestyle around the merchandise. In the store, the character’s sweater might be on the rack, but he also left his kayak in the corner, and you might even run into his dog as you browse.

“We don’t just sell clothes, we sell dreams,” David said. “We sell a lifestyle that’s exciting. When you’re shopping, you’re dreaming. You want access in that world,” he said.

David pointed out a few keys to success—don’t wait for everybody else to do it, just take the risk and and go for it. There’s a balancing act of knowing your customer and reacting to them, but also showing them something they haven’t seen before. And most importantly, in merchantainment, you must excite your customer. But as David points out, you have to get excited, too.

David Wolfe, Creative Director of The Doneger Group

1. Ageless Appropriate Apparel
According to Wolfe, “fashion is slowly waking up to the fact that not everyone is young.” As baby boomers age and life expectancies increase, one of the fastest growing demographics is 85+. Fashion houses are responding by using vintage models in their shows, designing sophisticated dresses, lowering hemlines, and covering up evening wear with higher necklines and sleeves.

2. Comeback of Color
Wolfe predicts that we’re moving away from the age when everyone wears black. We can expect to see strong brights and soft lights, unusual color combinations, head to toe hues, and white, white, white. While black isn’t completely going away, it will no longer be basic. Cutouts and unusual fabrics will keep it looking fresh.

3. Modern Minimalism
Simplicity is the wave of the future, leading to the demise of embellishments and overdressing. No frills, no fuss, no extraneous details or trim.

4. Innovative Materials
The use of different materials and fabrics will breathe new life into recycled designs. Metallics and brushed wool will be popular and zebra will take over as the most coveted animal print, edging out the “tired leopard.” Newly designed hollow yarn will make bulky sweater-knits lighter, cooler, and more popular.

5. Experimental Style
As Wolfe described this phenomenon, I envisioned Lady Gaga’s extravagant style. Some things we may see in the future: mood dresses and clothing incorporating floating light orbs.

6. What’s Old is New Again
A return of the “slash”, full-skirt silhouettes, and couture coats with strong shapes.

7. Architectural Inspiration
Breakthrough architectural materials and design may influence fashion patterns. Wolfe gave the example of a drapery fabric that absorbs sunlight during the day and shimmers at night. Will the fashion industry be able to repurpose materials these materials for use in design?

8. Showing Skin with Cutouts and Sheer See-Through
While considered a trend of the moment, this one is expected to come and go pretty quickly.

9. Exotic Accessories
Wolfe expects techno and outrageous accessories to beat apparel as the face of the future. A pair of sneakers you plug in? They may be on street corners before we know it.

10. A Move from “Stupid” to Down-to-Earth Shoes
Sky-high heels and platforms and bizarre shapes never meant for walking (also see #9) will give way to cleaner cuts and more sensible heels.

How will you incorporate these trends into your closet? You could start by adding pops of color to your wardrobe; purchasing a bright orange handbag instead of gravitating toward your usual black. Sounds fun, refreshing, unexpected…an instant way to update a look. But I’ll probably leave the light-up sneakers to another set. Just please turn them off in the movie theater.

Although there are risk management concerns with technology such as Wi-Fi, new payment technologies are an area that yesterday’s panelists expressed particular concern with. They’re also part of a surge in new technology innovations that are coming to market much faster than they have ever before. Retailers need to plan for every inevitability – and introducing emerging technology to your store can bring with it a plethora of new options for criminals.

Consider some of the applications of mobile payment. In-aisle purchasing is a hot topic now. But what happens after a customer has made his or her purchase in aisle? Does he or she simply leave the store, holding the item? Will your staff assume a person who didn’t go through traditional checkout is shoplifting? Do you have a process in place for making sure that item was paid for? There are no right or wrong answers here, but panelists urged us to rethink loss prevention policies when introducing emerging technologies.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution in this scenario. Some retailers may want a greeter at the door to double check purchases as people leave. Others may want to have a staffer monitor all in-store purchases on a tablet device. Still others may see a need to readdress security cameras when dealing with this issue.

Other questions, of course, remain. How do you prevent your staff from confusing a legitimate mobile purchaser with a thief? How do you handle the new window of opportunity for fraudulent returns? Moderator Evan Schuman, of StorefrontBacktalk.com Retail Technology Blog, raised the question of dealing with consumer devices and the complications that may entail. Criminals are savvy and capable of developing fake receipts and other images on their phones before they even enter the store.

While this sounds like a lot of potential security concerns, Joe LaRocca, NRF’s Senior Asset Protection Advisor, raised an excellent point in favor of all of these new technologies. The U.S. has already undergone three major changes in currency: from coins to paper to card. Now the U.S. is beginning to change its currency to be virtual. There have always been individuals who want to scam the system, and there always will be. Retailers have always had to trust that consumers’ offered currencies aren’t fraudulent, and that will continue to be true.

Overall, these new technologies serve to enhance customer experience, said LaRocca. Loss prevention is not about preventing purchasing – it’s about protecting the interests of the retailer and the consumer.

The number one suggestion that all of today’s panelists shared was that you need to get LP involved in mobile conversations from the very beginning. They approach new technology with a very different set of questions than the rest of your company, and getting those questions answered earlier rather than later can prevent a lot of headaches – and crime.