Archive for the ‘Retail’ Category
by David Bodamer May 1st, 2007
Is Tower Records going to make a comeback?
It turns out a former Tower executive has joined the firm that purchased the www.tower.com domain after the retailer’s liquidation. For now, the chain lives on as an internet retailer (much like Montgomery Ward). And there’s at least some talk of trying to revive the chain.
And in a potentially tantalizing development, Caiman is mulling the idea of opening some stores under the Tower name, said George Scarlett, a former Tower executive who is Caiman’s newly hired director of entertainment. Because it also purchased Tower’s trademark, Caiman has the right to open Tower stores.
It’s possible “you’ll see the Tower shingle out there again someday,” Scarlett said. “It’s just hard to know in what form.”
Didier Pilon, Caiman’s founder and director, told the trade publication Billboard that stores could open in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York in nine months.
But opening new stores, given the difficult climate for music retailers, may prove troublesome. Scarlett said it’s far from certain that any new stores will open.
“We’ve had very superficial discussions, just spitballing some ideas,” Scarlett said.
For more on the demise of record stores, check out this story we wrote in December.
Related Topics: News, Retail, Trends |
by David Bodamer April 26th, 2007
Tesco, which in the past had talked about taking its U.S. expansion slow, seems to be moving full blazes ahead with its growth in the California market.
British retailer Tesco has tripled the number of fresh express grocery stores it plans for Orange County.
Early Wednesday, Tesco – whose reputation in Europe rivals that of Wal-Mart in the United States – said it plans to open at least 100 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets in the U.S. by February 2008. Among those will be six stores planned for Fullerton, Laguna Hills, Orange, Anaheim, Buena Park and Huntington Beach, according to the state’s Alcohol Beverage Control office in Santa Ana. Previously, only two Tesco locations in Orange County were known.
The extra Tesco stores slated for the county could give local shoppers a reason to abandon traditional supermarkets, particularly if there is a work stoppage or strike similar to the grocery industry labor dispute of four years ago. Representatives for supermarket owners and workers are meeting to discuss a new labor agreement, and both sides recently have indicated a strike or lockout is possible.
For background on Tesco’s plan, check here and here.
Related Topics: News, Retail, Retail Real Estate, Trends |
by David Bodamer April 17th, 2007
Macy’s is testing quick-serve eateries at several stores in Florida.
Macy’s plans to introduce its own brand of quick-serve eateries and restaurants by world-famous chefs Wolfgang Puck and Todd English to Florida stores as a part of a national expansion project.
The department store chain expects to bring Macy’s Taste Bars – featuring a menu of signature soups, salads, sandwiches, as well as Macy’s brand gelato and coffee – to as many as eight stores across the state, including a location at the Town Center mall in Boca Raton, Macy’s Florida spokeswoman Melissa Goff said Tuesday.
In addition, Macy’s will open a Wolfgang Puck Express at a Broward County store and a café by Todd English called Fig’s at a Palm Beach County store, Goff said. She declined to say which mall stores would attract the new restaurants but said plans call for them to open this year.
Related Topics: News, Retail, Trends |
by David Bodamer April 16th, 2007
Women’s Wear Daily reported that JC Penney is on the verge of signing a deal to inhabit Manhattan Mall.
In a move that would reshape New York retailing, sources said Penney’s is close to a deal for major space in the Manhattan Mall — one block from Macy’s lucrative Herald Square flagship, which is said to generate about $650 million to $675 million in annual volume. Penney’s, which has stores in every New York borough except Manhattan, has been trying to find a location in the city for some time. The company is in growth mode, opening about 50 stores a year.
A Penney’s spokesman declined comment Thursday, and sources stressed a deal could still fall apart.
Manhattan Mall, a 1 million-square-foot, mixed-use building located on Sixth Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets, has 164,000 square feet of retail space on four levels. About 812,000 square feet of office space is occupied mainly by Bank of America and Interpublic Group. Vornado Realty Trust bought Manhattan Mall from Argent for $689 million in November.
Related Topics: Development, News, Retail |
by David Bodamer April 13th, 2007
The Easter shift helped make March a good month for retailers with same-store sales rising a higher-than-expected 5.7 percent (compared with projections of a 4 percent gain).
The early tally of a majority of the nation’s top 52 chain stores reporting to Thomson Financial showed 79% outpacing Wall Street’s expectations.
At the International Council of Shopping Centers, the cumulative gain of same-store sales, the industry’s most important gauge of growth measuring sales at stores open longer than a year, stood at 5.7% — markedly better than the 3% to 4% increase projected.
But there’s talk emerging that April has not gone nearly as well.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which released its monthly results along with other merchants on Thursday, expects the current month to be “tough.” Federated Stores Inc. said that its first-quarter sales will come in at the low end of expectations. And Children’s Place Retail Stores Inc. warned that its first-quarter earnings per share would fall short of Wall Street forecasts.
Related Topics: News, Retail |
by David Bodamer April 12th, 2007
Target Corp. has said it plans to open 500 stores in the next five years. That will leave it with 2,000 stores in the U.S., still a fair bit below Wal-Mart’s roster of 1,063 Wal-Mart discount stores, 2,285 Supercenters, 582 Sam’s Clubs and 116 Neighborhood Markets in the United States.
Target Corp. said Wednesday that it expects to increase its U.S. presence by 33 percent over the next five years, to about 2,000 stores, and will open its first outlets in Alaska and Hawaii.
Target Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Ulrich said in a presentation to analysts that the company remains focused on adding U.S. stores. Target has shown relatively little interest in adding stores in Canada or other locations outside the United States. That’s in contrast to retailers such as Best Buy Co. Inc. — which has a fast-growing Canadian operation and is expanding into China — and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has nearly a third of its 6,700 stores outside the United States.
Related Topics: Development, News, Retail, Retail Real Estate |
by David Bodamer April 11th, 2007
Figuring out how best to serve Baby Boomers remains a key question for the retail industry. Apparently, there’s still a lot to be learned.
Greenwald, 50, and Solomon-Turner, 60, share the same frustrations. They don’t understand why most stores don’t have a clue that while their bodies may be aging, their spirits are not.
“I am not in denial, but I also don’t have the AARP attitude,” said Greenwald, a real estate executive. “I won’t go to a store that focuses on older people.” She just snapped up a pair of red platform shoes and flaunts her toned figure by wearing slim-fitting clothes that graze right above her knee.
Solomon-Turner, who prefers black leggings, agrees.
“I keep an eye on the trends. I want to be in fashion,” said the co-owner of a public relations company. “But I don’t want to wear mini skirts.”
Related Topics: News, Retail, Trends |
by David Bodamer March 28th, 2007
Wal-Mart to New York: fuhgeddaboudit.
Frustrated by a bruising, and so far unsuccessful battle to open its first discount store in the nation’s largest city, Wal-Mart’s chief executive said yesterday, “I don’t care if we are ever here.”
H. Lee Scott Jr., the chief executive of the nation’s largest retailer, said that trying to conduct business in New York was so expensive — and exasperating — that “I don’t think it’s worth the effort.”
Mr. Scott’s remarks, delivered at a meeting with editors and reporters of The New York Times, amounted to a surprising admission of defeat, given the company’s vigorous efforts to crack into urban markets and expand beyond its suburban base in much of the country. In recent years, Wal-Mart has encountered stout resistance to its plans to enter America’s bigger cities, which stand as its last domestic frontier.
Much of the opposition to Wal-Mart in cities like New York is led by unions. Organized labor, fearing that the retailer’s low prices and modest wages will undercut unionized stores, have built anti-Wal-Mart alliances with Democratic members of city councils.
More here.
I doubt this piece in the New Yorker had anything to do with it the company’s decision.
Related Topics: News, Retail |
by David Bodamer March 25th, 2007
How the value of its real estate is playing into a potential sale of Carrefour, the world’s second largest retailer.
Related Topics: International, News, Retail, Retail Real Estate, Trends |
Why Federated Is Right and Wanamaker Was Wrong
by David Bodamer April 10th, 2007
Here’s an interesting piece from one of our sister publications, Chief Marketer called Why Federated Is Right and Wanamaker Was Wrong.
No Comments Related Topics: Commentary, Management & Leasing, News, Retail |