Events

New York -- Holiday shopping is going to start early this year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers’ latest consumer tracking survey. About 35% of consumers have or will have started their holiday shopping by the end of October. Roughly three out of five shoppers will begin shopping by Thanksgiving this year, and by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend 86% will have started making purchases.   

Philadelphia -- Off-price retailer Century 21 Department Store will open in Philadelphia on Oct. 28, 2014. Century 21 will serve as the anchor tenant of The Gallery, a shopping center undergoing a redevelopment.  

Food Lion partnered with its customers and Feeding America to help provide 1.5 million meals to families in need.  

Thanks to a program that began on September 17, each time a customer purchased the specially-marked apples Food Lion helped provide five meals to local food banks.

When it comes to domestic divas, Martha Stewart has few rivals, but Ellen DeGeneres is dipping her toe in the water with a new seasonal home collection branded as E.D. On Air.

The popular comedian and talk show host announced the creation of her new lifestyle collection in July called simply E.D. The new seasonal home collection is called E.D. On Air because it was created exclusively for QVC. It will debut on Friday, October 8 when DeGeneres introduces the line live on her show.

Seattle –- Amazon.com will open a holiday pop-up store at San Francisco Westfield Centre, in San Francisco, on Wednesday, Oct. 22, according to the San Francisco Business Journal.   

Amazon has sweetened the value proposition for its Prime members this holiday season by offering a 30 minute head start on select Lightning Deals on Amazon.com and daily sales events at MyHabit.com.

The early access deals feature is the latest enhancement to Amazon’s Prime membership which is best known for providing free two day shipping to members who pay a $99 annual fee. The feature brings elements of the competitive shopping behavior to Amazon by creating a sense of urgency to make purchases before the goods are gone.

Big Lots is preparing for the grand opening celebration of its newest store at 9 a.m. Friday, October 17, and baseball great Mariano Rivera will be in attendance.

Rivera, who spent 17 seasons with the New York Yankees as a relief pitcher, will kick off the store opening with an autograph session from 10 a.m-noon.

"What better way to celebrate our new store in North Bergen than by welcoming New York Yankee great Mariano Rivera to join us on this special day," said CEO and president David Campisi.

Giant Eagle celebrated the grand opening of its newest Market District in Strongsville, Ohio. The Strongsville Market District will be the first Market District location serving the west side of Cleveland.

The 107,000-sq.-ft. Market District is open 24 hours a day, and will offer restaurant-quality dishes, as well as unique meat, produce, cheese and grocery selections from around the globe.