Strategy

Total U.S. Shopper Traffic in Retail Stores and Malls for December 2012

Holiday shopping reached its seasonal peak in December, driving a 36.6 percent retail foot traffic increase over November. Further, December 2012 continued a trend of year-over-year improvements in the number of shoppers visiting stores with a 1.2 percent increase in foot traffic when compared to the same month last year.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. said Tuesday it plans to price-match top online retailers year-round, including Amazon.com, Walmart.com, BestBuy.com and Toysrus.com (including Babiesrus.com).

Target stores will also price-match items found on Target.com, the company said.

New York -- Due to the holiday rush and related closings, Chain Store Age extended the deadline for its 31st annual Retail Store of the Year Design Competition until Tuesday, January 8, 2013. Eligible projects are those completed between November 2011 and December 2012.

More than 20 categories are featured, ranging from supermarkets and discount/mass merchants to specialty stores and pop-up stores. Entries may be submitted by retailers, designers, architects or suppliers.

Procter & Gamble name Macy’s chairman, president and CEO Terry Lundgren as the newest member of its board of directors.

Lundgren fills a position vacated by current P&G Director Johnathan Rodgers who is not seeking re-election when P&G’s holds its annual shareholder meeting in October.

Atlanta -- Wireless accessory retailer Cellairis said Tuesday it has opened its first in-line store at North Point Mall in Alpharetta, Ga.

Operating over 700 kiosks in malls across the country, the company is launching this new model in order to provide consumers with a more robust retail experience, it said.

The opening is the first in a company-wide initiative to implement a new store design, which features multimedia displays.

ROSEVILLE, Calif. — Outdoors specialty retailer Cabela’s has entered into a multi-year agreement with Revionics, a leading provider of end-to-end merchandise optimization solutions.

Cabela’s, which operates 40 large format stores and describes itself as the world's largest direct marketer of hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor merchandise, will look to Revionics to improve its life cycle price optimization solutions.

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens and BMW Manufacturing on Tuesday celebrated the grand opening of a comprehensive worksite health center on the BMW campus in Spartanburg, S.C.
 
The 25,000-sq. ft. facility, managed by Walgreens Employer Solutions Group, will provide BMW associates, dependents and eligible retirees a wide range of health services, including primary and occupational care.

NEW YORK — The National Retail Federation will present Ohio Council of Retail Merchants president and CEO John C. Mahaney Jr., known as “the Chief,” with the J. Thomas Weyant Lifetime Achievement Award at NRF’s Annual Convention and EXPO next week in New York.