Corporate Governance

Restructuring will be key to retail survival in 2016, according to veteran retail analyst Walter Loeb, who is worried about the future profitability of many leading traditional retailers as the year gets underway. “They are losing sales productivity in their stores while expenses rise and management bureaucracy grows,” Loeb wrote in an article on Forbes.com. [Forbes.com]

Consumer confidence rose in December amid lower gas prices and a stronger job market.

The index of consumer confidence rose to 96.5 in December from a revised 92.6 in November, the Conference Board said Tuesday. (The November reading originally was put at 90.4, the lowest level in more than a year.) Economists expected a rise to 93.6, according to Bloomberg.

Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy on Monday named Richard Willis as the company's president and CEO. He will also serve as a director of the company.

St. Petersburg, Fla. -- The Sembler Company’s latest listing is nearly 3,250 sq. ft. of ground-floor retail space in The Salvador, new luxury condominiums, located in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. The 74-unit, green-certified condo tower is located just 300 ft. from the University of South Florida, and walking distance from The Dali Museum, The Mahaffey Theater and the Central Avenue arts/entertainment district among other attractions.

Venice, Fla. -- Main Street Ranchlands and The Sembler Company announced the companies have formed a joint venture to develop the Marketplace at Coastamar in West Villages located in Venice, Florida. This is the first commercial opportunity in the rapidly growing master-planned community in south Sarasota County.

Sonic Drive-In is expanding its footprint in the Golden State.

The company signed franchise agreements to open a total of 33 new drive-ins in the state of California over the next seven years.

The 33 drive-ins are planned for multiple markets across the state: 11 in Sacramento; 12 in the San Francisco Bay Area; three in west Los Angeles; five between Bakersfield and Stockton and two in the Palm Springs area.

Circle K Stores Inc., a division of Alimentation Couche-Tard, has purchased 62 convenience stores in nine states from Dallas-based Greatstone Equities Inc., according to the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report.

The deal includes locations in Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas and Washington, the report said.

I left Walmart to pursue what I saw as the future of retail. In my exit interview with Mike Duke (at that time president and CEO of Walmart International) he asked me what I meant by the future of retail. Having worked in the international division, Sam’s Club and Costco prior to that, the future I saw at the time revolved around leveraging data and managing technology to understand customers in a granular fashion and speaking to them directly as individuals with highly lifestyle relevant products and services.