Strategy

In retail, as in life, experience is everything. Whether it’s online, on a smartphone or in the store, it really doesn’t make a difference. A bad experience will turn off customers, while a good one will build brand advocates. It’s always been like that, of course. But today’s technology-enabled shoppers have changed the rules of the game by upping the stakes considerably.

Milford, Conn. — Subway opened its 40,000th location at an AppleGreen petrol station in Ipswich, England. The company has opened 1,761 locations around the world since the start of 2013. The largest chain of sub shops in the world, Subway leads the next largest chain by more than 5,500 locations.

The U.K. is the brand’s third largest market, behind the U.S. and Canada. There are 14,000 international locations in 102 countries outside the U.S.

Widening competition for commodity grocery sales is changing grocery-anchored shopping centers.

Supermarket-anchored shopping centers haven't changed much since the invention of suburbia. Find a good location, sign a grocery anchor, get a construction loan and some inline local, regional and maybe national retailers, and you're in business.

Today, however, supermarkets are beginning to change, and supermarket-anchored shopping centers, of course, must follow along.

Why are grocers changing? Competition from all sides.

Des Moines, Iowa — The Des Moines Area Community College opened its school year with a new campus: a 65,000-sq.-ft. former J.C. Penney store located on the main level of Southridge Mall.

The mall’s owner, Macerich sold the space to DMACC for $1. The school, which has three other campuses in the Des Moines metro area, has invested $13 million in design, construction, equipment, labs and classrooms. Major donations will be announced this fall.

NEW YORK — Tiffany & Co. saw sales growth and an improved operating margin for the second quarter ended July 31, fueled largely by its performance in China. 

The company’s total sales in the Americas region were lackluster, increasing 2% to $444 million in the second quarter. Comparable-store sales remained flat for the quarter.

L3 Capital invests in what it calls prime urban retail, which includes a lot of street retail in the premier cities. "We own retail properties in several neighborhoods in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago," said Greg Schott managing piincipal.

At the end of last year, L3 made its first investment in its hometown of Chicago. The company bought four retail buildings along a flourishing four-block retail stretch of Southport Avenue in the Lakewood neighborhood. The cost was $13 million for 17,000 sq. ft.

The Woodlands, Texas – Conn’s Inc. opens two new HomePlus stores on Tuesday in Tempe, Ariz., and Houston. The new Conn’s HomePlus store format showcases furniture and mattresses in addition to consumer electronics and home appliances.

The stores are located at 5000 Arizona Mills Circle, Tempe, and 9567 South Main Street, Houston. The Arizona Mills Mall location is Conn’s third new store in the Phoenix metropolitan market and fourth location in Arizona.

NEW YORK — Mitchell Klipper, CEO of Barnes & Noble’s retail group., has sold off two-thirds of his stock holdings in Barnes & Noble between Aug. 22 and Aug. 26, according to reports. 

An SEC filing indicates that Klipper sold 400,000 of roughly 600,000 shares he held in the company, grossing more than $5.5 million.