Strategy

Saks Fifth Avenue plans to shutter its 107,000-sq.-ft. store at The Mall at Short Hills, in Short Hills, New Jersey, amid plans to open a flagship in a huge retail and entertainment center in the state.
     
As previously announced, the upscale retailer plans to open a store at the under-construction, three-million-sq.-ft. American Dream Meadowlands mega-center, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Cost cuts helped Abercrombie & Fitch Co. put a sizable dent in its net loss during first quarter 2016, but the teen apparel retailer reported lower than expected sales and earnings as store traffic declined, particularly overseas.  
 
Abercrombie reported a net loss of $39.6 million, down from $63.2 million in the year-ago period, Expense reduction efforts and the realization of savings on lower sales drove the loss reduction.
 
Net sales dropped 3% to $685.5 million from about $707 million, missing Wall Street projections.

Costco Wholesale Corp. exceeded Wall Street expectations with improved net earnings in the third quarter of fiscal 2016.
 
Net income for the quarter totaled a better-than-expected $545 million, up 6% from $516 million the prior-year period.

Net sales increased 2% to $26.15 billion, just short of forecasts, and up from $25.52 billion last year.

Canadian specialty frozen food retailer M&M Meat Shops has changed its name to M&M Food Market as part of a total brand reinvention that includes a new store experience.

Complete with new shopping carts, color-coded in-store signage, merchandising displays and a kitchen, the new store concept works to create a more effective, convenient and hands-on shopping experience.

Designed by Shikatani Lacroix, the format is now being rolled out across Canada.

It’s going to take some getting used to. That’s one of retail consultant Neil Stern’s first impressions of the new 365 by Whole Foods Market format, which made its national debut on Wednesday,  in Los Angeles. The store combines elements of a Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and Sports,  Stern said in a report by Forbes.
 

Over the last 12 annual trips I’ve made to Las Vegas for ICSC’s RECon real estate convention (which officially makes me a rookie in this industry of 20-, 30- and 40+-year veterans), I have always been able to detect some distinct trends.  

That doesn’t as much make me a trend-watcher as it does a good listener.  The retailers and shopping center operators and brokers who attend RECon each year tend to talk avidly in the aisles about the current events shaping the retail real estate industry.

Feeling the heat from an activist inventory, Chico's FAS Inc. will increase its cost-cutting efforts on the heels of a disappointing first quarter.
    
The women’s apparel retailer reported a profit of $31.1 million, or 23 cents a share, for the quarter ended April 30, down from $32.5 million, or 22 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding restructuring-related charges and other items, adjusted per-share earnings fell to 25 cents from 30 cents.

The nation’s top two extreme-value discounters aren’t feeling the retail malaise that affected department stores and many specialty retailers in the first quarter.  

At a time when the world of commercial real estate continues to evolve in new and different directions, many traditional malls find themselves at crossroads. To survive, mall owners and operators must make significant and sometimes dramatic changes in order to remain commercially relevant and financially viable.