Strategy

Prices were cut on 1,500 items at Target.com last Friday as the retailer executed an online-only Black Friday in July promotion. It was the second consecutive year Target conducted the event which, despite the name, pales in comparison to the real Black Friday, which is an operational nightmare and features extreme discounts on prices retailers would rather not get in the habit of offering at other times of the year.

Addison, Texas — Coyote Management, L.P. and Garrison Investment Group announced that Lakeshore Mall, in Gainesville, Ga., is undergoing a renovation that includes extensive landscaping upgrades, new branding campaign, banners, directional signage, reopened customer service, gift card program and children’s strollers.

This week, said the companies, the property will begin construction on a new 11’ x 26’ monument sign and over $25,000 in landscaping. The project is scheduled to be complete by the end of July.

NEW YORK — Global consumer confidence cautiously edged up one index point to 93 in the second quarter as confidence increases in booming Asian markets were offset by European consumers’ growing concerns of an escalating debt crisis, which battered confidence levels in Spain, Italy and France, according to the latest edition of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index. Consumer confidence rose two points in the U.S. in Q2 to 87.

New York — Liz Claiborne Inc. is looking to sell its Mexx apparel brand to a private-equity firm, according to Bloomberg. Leonard Green & Partners, Sun Capital and Golden Gate Capital are among the firms that have shown an interested in Mexx, the report said.

Final bids are due within a few weeks with a sale expected to be completed in September, Bloomberg said.

Shares of Target are mis-valued at current levels around $50 and could eventually double if the company delivers on plans achieve $100 billion in sales and earnings per share of $8 by 2016 or 2017.

That’s according to Bernstein Research analyst Colin McGranahan who noted in a recent research report that he spent time at Target’s Minneapolis headquarter where he met with chairman, president and CEO, Gregg Steinhafel, CFO Doug Scovanner and EVP merchandising Kathee Tesija.

Nine of the 21 new store openings Target has planned for this year are scheduled to open on July 24. Among the openings is a new unit in Hilo, Hawaii, the company’s fourth store in Hawaii, two units in San Luis Obispo and Oxnard, Calif. and two units in the Pennsylvania cities of Hanover and Pittsburgh. The Phoenix suburb of Chandler gets a new Target as do Moore, Okla., Kenner, La. And Swansea, Mass.

The openings planned for October are said to included units in San Clemente and Dublin, Ca., Gastonia and Morrisville, N.C., Blue Ash, Ohio and Warwick Township, Pa.

Aguora Hills, Calif. -- Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency Centers said it has leased space in Aguora Hills, Calif. to GNC, which will open a new store at Twin Oaks Shopping Center.

GNC has leased 1,050 sq. ft., bringing the center to 97% leased.  The tenant is slated to open for business in fall 2011.  

Aguora Hills, a 98,399-sq.-ft. shopping center, is anchored by Ralphs, alongside RadioShack, Rite Aid, Wells Fargo Bank and Starbucks. 

Long-time sporting goods industry executive Norbert Olberz, 86, who founded Sports Chalet in 1959, died of natural causes last Friday the company announced on Sunday.

Olberz served as CEO of Sports Chalet for 40 years until 1999, and he remained as chairman until 2001. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Irene, his sister, Elizabeth Lepper, his son, Eric, and by his grandchildren Karl and Markus.