Marketing

Amid continued market share growth by Amazon and a rapidly changing digital environment, traditional retail profitability metrics are under siege and not sustainable.   

In an age when mall owners’ overriding challenge is what to do with the space left by departed department stores, one 50-year-old center in California landed a new one.   Penney last week opened a 119,000-sq.-ft. location at Inland Center in San Bernardino, joining co-anchors Macy’s, Sears, and Forever 21. The fully renovated space it occupies was last home to Gottshalks.   

Ed Burstell will join Hudson’s Bay Company’s leadership team as head of partnerships.    In this newly created position, Burstell will develop and lead partnerships to drive innovative and exclusive offerings across all of HBC’s banners globally — a move that will help differentiate the company across the marketplace. Burstell, who comes aboard on Dec. 5, will report to the company’s CEO Jerry Storch.  

Raley’s, the Northern Californian grocery chain, got one step closer to its vision to build a neighborhood “hub” in Sacramento.   According to a report in the Sacramento Bee, the city’s Planning and Design Commission voted 12-to-1 to approve the chain’s plans for “The Park,” a 108,000-sq.-ft. open-air center ringed by a metal canopy and featuring large store windows and shrub-filled “green screens.”  

While many retailers still struggle with how to leverage the Black Friday sales frenzy, REI has other plans in mind.   For the second year, REI will remain closed on both Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. “Instead of feeding the Black Friday frenzy, we're closing our 149 stores and giving our 12,287 employees a paid day off,” REI’s website reported.   

My family – and many other consumers – have already started planning for the holidays. With Deloitte projecting a 4% increase in holiday sales over last year's shopping season, it’s critical that you have the workforce in place to address this opportunity.  

Staples is getting into the licensing game as a means of expanding its brand. It’s first target — document storage.  

Nordstrom has opened its second full-line store In Toronto. The department store retailer opened a three-level, 199,000-sq.-ft. store at Yorkdale Shopping Centre on Oct. 21. It is the company's second location in Toronto, with the first, at CF Toronto Eaton Centre, opening in September.