by David Bodamer December 26th, 2007
MTV is looking to make some noise in the original musical arena with “The American Mall.”
The project, from “High School Musical” producers Bill Borden and Barry Rosenbush, will premiere next year on the cable network, followed immediately by a release on DVD.
Bulgarian-born actress Nina Dobrev and Rob Mayes lead the ensemble cast of the musical, a romantic comedy-drama set at a mall that centers on high school graduate Ally (Dobrev), a singer-songwriter battling to save her mother’s music store and to keep the boy she loves, Joey (Mayes), a musically gifted young janitor who fronts a garage band.
Full story.
Related Topics: News, Quirky, Retail Real Estate |
by David Bodamer December 26th, 2007
ICSC published sales figures for the last week of pre-Christmas sales (PDF). That doesn’t include the last-minute surge that was widely reported. The question is whether the surge was enough to turn the season into a truly successful one.
The last week of the holiday rush proved to be a positive one,
as many consumers shopped late this year. Weekly chain store sales rose by 2.8 percent for the
week ending December 22, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, Inc.
(ICSC) and UBS Securities LLC. On a year-over-year basis, sales rose by 2.8 percent as well.
The weekly year-over-year figures look like this:
| Week |
YOYGain |
| Dec. 1 |
3.1% |
| Dec. 8 |
2.3% |
| Dec. 15 |
2.1% |
| Dec. 22 |
2.8% |
For all ICSC’s releases, go here.
For its part, SpendingPulse the retail data service of MasterCard Advisors, said retail sales rose 3.6 percent for the holiday season. However, the SpendingPulse figure tends to be a bit high because it doesn’t adjust for same-store sales.
Related Topics: News, Retail, Trends |
by David Bodamer December 26th, 2007
A California judge ruled on Christmas Eve that shopping center common areas are the equivalent of traditional town squares and therefore even though its private property, first amendment rights to free speech and assembly apply.
On December 24, the California Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that its 1980 Pruneyard decision is still good law. That decision had said that because shopping center walkways are the social equivalent of the old traditional town square, therefore distributing leaflets, petitioning, and related free speech activity must be allowed, even though the shopping center is private property.
The new decision is Fashion Valley Mall v National Labor Relations Board, S144753. The particular kind of free speech activity concerned union activists passing out leaflets, suggesting a boycott of one particular store in that shopping center. The case had been in the courts since 1998.
The majority consisted of Chief Justice Ronald George and Justices Carlos Moreno, Joyce Kennard, and Kathryn Werdegar. The dissent was written by Justice Ming Chin and signed by Justices Marvin Baxter and Carol Corrigan. The dissent is fierce. It says, “Pruneyard was wrong when decided. In the nearly three decades that have since elapsed, jurisdictions throughout the nation have overwhelmingly rejected it (this is a reference the fact that most other State Supreme Courts have interpreted their state’s free speech provisions to not apply to any private property).” The dissent also says, “The time has come to recognize that we are virtually alone, and that Pruneyard was ill-conceived…Even if we stubbornly maintain our position of ‘magnificent isolation’ in the face of this tide of history, we should not carry Pruneyard to the extreme of forbidding private property owners from controlling expressive activity on their property – urging a boycott of its tenants – that is inimical to the purpose for which the property is being used…Assuming free speech rights exist in shopping centers, the fact remains that they are not Hyde Park in London, Central Park in New York, or the National Mall in Washington, D.C.”
The New York Times also reported on the ruling.
Related Topics: Management & Leasing, News, Retail Real Estate |
