Strategy

More smaller, “flex-format” stores are in Target’s future.

Target Corp. CEO Brian Cornell sees the chain eventually opening hundreds of smaller “flex-format” stores, he told reporters Wednesday prior to the company’s fall national meeting at its Minneapolis headquarters, Bloomberg reported.

Target has opened 23 smaller stores in major cities, with plans to add nine more this year, including one in the Tribeca section of downtown Manhattan.

The waning popularity of golf has taken its toll on the nation’s largest specialty golf retailer.

Golfsmith International Holdings Inc. on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, amid increasing debt and citing a strategy that it launched several years back to open bigger, most costly stores at a time when golf was beginning to decline in popularity. (Just last month, Nike last month announced it was leaving the golf hardware business, its worst-performing division. Adidas is selling its golf equipment business. )

Come this winter, shoppers in frigid Minnesota will be able to escape to a tropical paradise without leaving the state.

Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville restaurant will open a location at Mall of American, Bloomington, Minn., on Sept. 20. The 315-seat restaurant and bar will be Margaritaville’s first in the state of Minnesota.

Whole Foods Market opened its third store under its new banner, 365 by Whole Foods Market, on Wednesday, in Bellevue, Washington.
 
The 30,000-sq.-ft. store boasts a strong digital presence, reported GeekWire, from digital signage to digital scales.
    

Ikea is installing the largest solar rooftop array in the state of Tennessee atop its location in Memphis.

The store’s 250,675-sq.-ft. solar array consists of a 1.46 MW system, built with 4,424 panels that will produce approximately 2,000,000 kWh of electricity annually for the store, the equivalent of reducing 1,406 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)).

For the development, design and installation of the Memphis customized solar power system, Ikea selected Hannah Solar, an Atlanta-based full service, certified solar integrator.

All travelers agree: Lost luggage can ruin any trip.

With an eye on privacy and ease of use, eBags new smart solution hopes to streamline the travel experience. The luggage and travel accessory pure-play retailer has developed an app-enabled ID tag that reunites lost luggage with their owners.

Unlike the traditional luggage tag, which prominently displays the owner's contact information for anyone to see, the eBags Connected Luggage Tag uses patent-pending privacy controls to let customers control which personal information they display on tags, and when.

Traditional retailers who think the digital tide can be turned back are deluding themselves, according to the consulting firm’s fourth annual “New Digital Divide” report. With Facebook and Google playing host to hours of commercial interactions with consumers on a daily basis, the classic retail brand’s ability to guide the path to purchase is waning.

Brookshire Grocery Co. is expanding its portfolio with a new, smaller-store store format.

The chain held three ribbon-cutting ceremonies on Sept. 13, completing the openings of 25 new Spring Market stores in Texas. The stores are located on former Walmart Express sites, which Brookshire acquired in July.

The stores bring Brookshire’s total store count to 177.