Corporate Governance

 

Downsized facilities management departments. Projects that reduce maintenance and operating costs. Store refreshes as opposed to costly remodels. Mandy Rennehan of Freshco Retail Maintenance spoke with Chain Store Age about how changes in retail facilities management are impacting retailers.

 

What trends are you seeing with regard to store retrofits and remodels?

SearsRugs.com is the name of a new online marketplace that promises to make shopping for high end affordable rugs easy and fun.

The site launched recently and promises access to tens of thousands of the best handmade and machine-made rugs from around the world. SearsRugs.com, a licensee of Sears Holdings, said it is working with the retailer to provide an easy and fun shopping experience and indicated the relationship would give SearsRugs.com a substantial position in the online rug market.

Richardson, Texas --Real estate development and investment firm KDC announced that Chef Kent Rathbun’s Jasper’s “Gourmet Backyard Cuisine” concept will join CityLine, the company’s 186-acre mixed-use project in Richardson, Texas. The restaurant is scheduled to open in summer 2015.

By Lindsay Carlson,  Adam Biegel and Kimyatta McClary, Alston & Bird LLP   Over the past 18 months, there has been a significant increase in litigation and enforcement activity concerning comparative price advertising in the retail industry. Companies can face substantial reputational and cost consequences if targeted, and should consider examining their price advertising models and prepare to defend these models.  

Leading third party logistics provider Transplace acquired fellow 3PL Logistics Management Solutions in a deal that extends the company’s expertise to chemical and industrial manufacturing.

New York City -- Juice Generation, a juice bar concept with 12 locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, signed a lease for its first Financial District location at 101 Maiden Lane, located at the corner of Pearl Street at the base of the luxury residential complex 2 Gold Street.  

Deerfield, Ill. -– Same-store sales at Walgreen Co. grew 5.6% in October. Total sales were $6.8 billion, an increase of 6.9% from $6.36 billion for the same month in fiscal 2014.   Total front-end sales increased 2.7% in October compared with the same month in fiscal 2014, while same-store front-end sales increased 2%.   

San Francisco -- Gap Inc. reported that it will surpass 100 Gap branded stores across mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan on Nov. 8 when the brand opens a location in Guangzhou. The milestone--reached less than four years after the first Gap store debuted in 2010--includes Gap and Gap Outlet stores.