Strategy

Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois - Mid-America Real Estate Corporation recently announced the promotions of two employees to Principals and two employees to Senior VPs.   Joe Girardi is a member of Mid-America’s Shopping Center Investment Sales team, and has been promoted to a Principal of Mid-America Real Estate Corporation. He has been with Mid-America since 2003, and has been directly involved in the completion of over $2 billion of retail investment sale transactions.   

New York - A federal judge has ruled that customers suing Target for last year’s data breach may move forward with their claims.   U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson in St. Paul, Minn., dismissed claims by plaintiffs in certain states but largely denied Target's request to toss out the proposed class action lawsuit. Magnuson rejected Target's argument that the consumers lacked standing to sue because they could not establish any injury.  

With 2014 almost over, another holiday shopping season is drawing to a close. The looming question on everyone’s mind, of course, is whether holiday sales managed to live up to the (mostly) positive holiday forecasts from analysts and retail organizations.   

Fort Worth, Texas – The management shakeup continues at RadioShack Corp. Jennifer Warren, chief marketing officer of the troubled consumer electronics chain, has reportedly left the company.   According to the Wall Street Journal, Warren, who had served as chief marketing officer since early 2013 and was responsible for a highly publicized Super Bowl ad featuring 1980s celebrities, no longer works for RadioShack. There are no other details on her departure and Warren and RadioShack declined further comment. 

Canton, Mass. - Dunkin' Brands Group Inc., the parent company of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, plans to add between 410 and 440 net new U.S. Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants five to 10 net new Baskin-Robbins U.S. restaurants in 2015. Globally, the company expects to open between 615 and 750 net new units in the coming year.  

Walmart is instituting new rules on poultry safety as the company looks to protect customers from foodborne illness.

Walmart’s enhanced poultry safety measures will require poultry suppliers to achieve prevention-based certification by one of the Global Food Safety Initiative's recognized standards. Walmart said poultry suppliers must implement "holistic controls" from farm to fork; the controls must significantly reduce potential contamination levels, including chicken parts.

Seattle – Manhattan residents have the opportunity to receive Amazon deliveries faster than even before.

Rite Aid is raising its guidance for 2015 after a big jump in same store sales lifted the company in the third quarter.

The company reported third-quarter revenues of $6.7 billion, an increase of 5.3%, driven primarily by same-store sales. Same-store sales for the quarter ended Nov. 29 were up 5.4% overall, including a 1.6% lift in front-end same store sales and a 7.2% increase in pharmacy same store sales.