Corporate Governance

The great outdoors has come to Fifth Avenue — courtesy of The North Face.   The retailer, a division of VF Corp., is opening a two-level, 20,000-sq.-ft. flagship in the old Manufacturers Trust Company building, a New York City landmark of modernist architecture. (The official opening date is Oct. 26.)  

An assessor processes your annually filed personal property tax return and assigns a value based on the cost of and age of your store fixtures. Is that assessment correct?    Increasingly the answer is “no” in a fast-changing retail environment in which online sales are turning in-store shelves into museum pieces. Online sales have increased 75.8%, to $341.7 billion, over the past five years alone. Statista forecasts that to double by 2020.  

While most retailers haven’t upped their 2016 holiday hiring over last year, Amazon is not among them.   The e-commerce giant announced it plans to hire more than 120,000 workers in the United States this holiday season, with positions across its network of fulfillment centers, sortation centers and customer service sites.  

Save-A-Lot may be facing a possible spin-off from parent company Supervalu, but the chain is still bullish about its future.    Supervalu is expected to announce the fate of its discount grocery banner next week, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported, with Toronto private equity firm Onex Corp. the leading bidder if Supervalu does pursue a sale. 

It has been a long haul, but radio frequency identification (RFID) is finally making its bones in retail.   In 2014, 34% of retailers either implemented or were in the process of adding or piloting RFID. Fast-forward to 2016, and those results have doubled to 73%, according to the “Kurt Salmon RFID in Retail Study 2016.”  

Driving your car on the beach and the Daytona International Speedway. Those are the things that have long defined Daytona Beach. Those and the legendary Bill France, Sr.   

A sizzling Ulta Beauty wowed the Street on Thursday, announcing aggressive store expansion at a time when many brick-and-mortar retailers are cutting back. It also upped its outlook.  

Ikea is expanding its presence in the Sunshine State.   The home furnishings giant is set to begin construction next month on a store in Jacksonville, its fifth location in Florida, with a planned opening in fall 2017, increasing the Swedish retailer’s presence in the Sunshine State.    Ikea has chosen Marcobay Construction, Lakeland, Fla., to serve as construction manager for the Jacksonville site work and store development project.