Sustainability

Minneapolis – Target Corp. is reportedly bringing a sunny approach to energy at its store in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

According to the Fayetteville Observer, Target will install solar panels that can generate 432 KwH of electricity per year on the store’s roof. There is no firm launch date yet for the store’s solar panels, which will likely generate 15%-30% of its total electricity needs.   

Dallas -- Kip Tindell, co-founder, chairman and CEO of The Container Store, has joined a global list of who’s who in retailing.

Tindell was inducted into the World Retail Hall of Fame during a closing day ceremony at the World Retail Congress in Rome, Italy. Now in its ninth year, the World Retail Hall of Fame has honored founders of some of the retail world’s most iconic brands.

Starbucks Coffee Company's first store in Panama is located in Panama City, in the Street Mall shopping center. With a 28-ft. high ceiling, the focal point of the 3,304-sq.-ft. store is a one-of-a-kind custom made hanging mobile, designed to represent the Geisha coffee plant, which signifies the birth of the coffee industry in Panama.

Freeport, Maine -- The man who turned a folksy Maine mail-order outlet into a global billion dollar-plus multichannel business has died.

Back in September 2013, I wrote a TechBytes column about how millennials aren’t that different from prior young generations in their interests and needs. I have since realized there are a few unique millennial social trends which reflect specific generational consumer attributes. Using leading-edge technology, retailers can effectively meet the generational needs of this increasingly important customer demographic.

Rock is Dead

Ikea will open the largest Ikea store in the United States in Burbank, Calif., next year.

The new store, on 22 acres along Interstate 5 in Burbank, be 456,000 square feet (the biggest Ikea in the world, at 594,000 square feet, is in Stockholm). Plans include parking for 1,700 cars, "improved access and parking and a larger warehouse space," plus "50 'inspirational room-settings,' three model-home interiors, a supervised children's play area and a larger restaurant for serving Swedish specialties."

Burbank, Calif. -- Ikea on Wednesday broke ground on a new store that is located less than one mile away from the company’s first-ever store in California and oldest location in the Western United States.

Ikea is building a new, larger store in Burbank, California. Until it opens on the new site in spring 2017, customers can continue to shop at the existing 242,000-sq.-ft. Ikea in Burbank, which was its sixth overall U.S. store and opened in November 1990.

Kroger already has a good relationship with shoppers, but the retailer is looking to elevate its brand even further by making a key hire in reputation management.

The Kroger Co. announced it has named Jessica C. Adelman to serve as Kroger's group vice president of corporate affairs, effective Nov. 1.