Marketing Tactics

Chicago -- Ebay, Walmart and McDonalds are tops when it comes to in-store charity donations, according to a study by Cause Marketing Forum that ranked the largest consumer donations at the point-of-sale last year. More than $358 million was raised in 2012 through a total of 63 corporate-backed charity checkout campaigns identified by Cause Marketing.

San Francisco -- Parent company Williams-Sonoma said that its PBteen banner will open its first store in southern California, at The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks on Saturday, June 1.
 
The store will be anchored around a PBteen Design Lab, where teens and their parents can engage with the brand and its products by digitally creating a personalized room on a computer monitor. Using drag and drop technology, teens can experiment with different room configurations and color combinations and see it come to life on a television screen overhead.

Lyndhurst, N.J. -- Crossroads Cos. has been named leasing agent and property manager for Veterans Square Shopping Center, located on New York Avenue in Lyndhurst, N.J.

The 144,400-sq.-ft. neighborhood shopping center’s tenant roster includes a free-standing ShopRite, Home Goods and a mix of national, regional and neighborhood businesses.

Milwaukee -- Chicago-based HSA Commercial joined leaders from the City of Wauwatosa to celebrate the groundbreaking of Phase I of The Mayfair Collection, a large-scale, mixed-use development at Highway 45 and Burleigh Street in suburban Milwaukee.

Phase I of the project will consist of adaptively repurposing functionally obsolete warehouse buildings along Highway 45 into new, contemporary retail environments.

New York -- Elixir Juice Bar has leased two more stores in Manhattan, according to Winick Realty Group, which represented the brand in both of its recent New York leases.

Elixir will occupy 70 Greenwich Avenue, located between Seventh Avenue South and Sixth Avenue in the heart of the West Village. Elixir has also leased a location in the Upper East Side. The 500-sq.-ft. store is located at 1371 Third Avenue, between 78th and 79th Streets.

Whiting, Ind. -- Survey results released Thursday by CouponCabin.com found that more than one-in-10 Americans say their shopping habits have put them in debt, with 20% saying the most amount of shopping debt they've been in exceeds $5,000.

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, also revealed that 41% of U.S. adults have created shopping debt of more than $1,000. Eleven percent consider themselves to be shopaholics.

Columbus, Ohio -- Express Inc. reported Thursday that its third-quarter net income fell 23% to $32.4 million, compared with $42.1 million in the same period last year. Results, impacted by heavier discounting and higher costs, still beat Wall Street’s estimates.  

Revenue climbed 3% to $508.5 million, solidly topping analysts’ estimate of $498 million and prompting the apparel retailer to lift its full-year earnings forecast. Same-store sales were flat in the quarter, after a 4% gain last year.

Atlanta -- The Home Depot announced a single-day effort to prepare residents in storm-prone regions for the upcoming hurricane season. On July 27, Home Depot said it will host Hurricane Preparedness Workshops at more than 700 of its stores from the Gulf Coast to New England.

The expansion of the workshops is one of several preemptive measures the company is taking in preparation for 2013 hurricane activity, which is once again predicted to be above average.

By Crosby Renwick, [email protected]

The pundits say retail, as we’ve known it since the ancient Egyptians, is coming to an end. Ouch. That’s big. You have to admit the logic is not bad: When retail is literally everywhere, when we can buy virtually anything off our phones and have it delivered, why go to a store?