News

Opioid crisis: Employers must act

By William J. Hallan, MRA Executive Vice President, COO and General Counsel

Like the rest of the country, Michigan is having an opioid crisis. The number of opioid prescriptions is increasing,

Price gouging and drug price transparency

House committee tackles drug pricing

The House Health Policy Committee started work on legislation that would require drug manufacturers to file an annual report detailing their expenses related to producing drugs that cost $10,000 or more for an annual course of treatment.

MRA’s Burke Sage of Rockford earns certification as credit card processing expert

LANSING – Burke Sage, Michigan Retailers Association’s Business Development Manager, has earned the national designation of Certified Payments Professional for his expertise in credit card processing.

The certification from the Electronic Transactions Association,

Opinion: NAFTA withdrawal would hurt retailers and customers

By Larry Lloyd

As the sixth and penultimate round of NAFTA negotiations wrapped up recently in Montreal, business and industry groups across the U.S. and North America are focused on the future of the 25-year-old free trade deal.

Gov’t Affairs News: November ballot could be crowded

November ballot could see many proposals that impact retailers

While it’s still early in the year, MRA has been keeping a close eye on several proposed ballot proposals including two that would raise Michigan’s minimum wage to $12 an hour and mandate paid leave policies.

Chain stores find compelling reasons to build small

By Rick Haglund

Major discount retailers that long profited by erecting large-format stores in the suburbs are going small.

Meijer, Target and others are zeroing in on underserved urban markets and college towns with smaller-format stores that are a fraction the size of their mammoth supercenters.

Michigan Retailers honors lawmakers MacGregor, VerHeulen for work on food tax bill

This year, Michigan Retailers Association chose two outstanding friends of retail to receive MRA’s Legislator of the Year awards: Representative Rob VerHeulen (R-Walker) and Senator Peter MacGregor (R-Rockford). Both legislators sponsored bills that became a new law preventing local governments from taxing food or beverages (Public Act 135 of 2018).

January sales slump, but see why we expect big sales in 2018

LANSING – Cold weather and the holiday hangover account for a dip in Michigan retail sales in January, on the heels of a positive holiday sales season, according to the latest Michigan Retail Index,