Seasonal

Leawood, Kan. -- Glimcher Realty Trust announced that it will rename One Nineteen as Town Center Crossing. Glimcher and the owners of One Nineteen and Town Center Plaza will rebrand both centers with new logos, new signage and a shared property directory.

“Our hope by rebranding the properties is to create the Town Center district, marking one of the best retail areas outside of Kansas City,” said Marshall Loeb, president and COO, Glimcher Realty Trust.

New York -- Mobile devices will play a pivotal role this Thanksgiving as the holiday transforms into "Mobile Thursday," the day before Black Friday, according to a new online survey by Harris Interactive, conducted on behalf of Digitas, a digitally led, global integrated brand agency.

Sears Holdings is looking to replicate the success it had with digital initiatives in 2011 by turning to the same firm that helped it deliver results.

For the second year in a row, Billups Design was selected to lead digital creative for Sears and Kmart Black Friday and holiday ecommerce dynamic ad campaigns. The project includes Sears and Kmart brand awareness ads, local ad business groups, and site retargeting ads with dynamic product feeds designed to increase ecommerce sales, according to Billups.

New York -- Sixty percent of Americans plan to shop in stores or online over the Thanksgiving weekend – up from 51% in 2011, according to Deloitte’s pre-Thanksgiving survey.

Among these weekend shoppers, 63% plan to shop in stores on Black Friday and 23% plan to shop in stores on Thanksgiving day (up from 17% in last year’s survey). Shoppers expect spend an average of $286 over the holiday weekend – up 28% from the 2011 survey

The survey also indicates:

HUDSON, Ohio — Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores has launched a mobile-optimized version of Joann.com, m.joann.com, to facilitate shopping for smartphone users just in time for the holiday shopping season.

New York -- Federal labor officials said Monday they will decide quickly whether to support a request by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to stop a union-backed group from pushing worker walk-outs at hundreds of stores on Black Friday, the Associated Press reported.

The chain on Thursday filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board to stop OUR Walmart, a group made up of current and former Wal-Mart workers, from holding protests at hundreds of stores.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Sony Stores have joined shopkick, a real-world shopping app, to offer “kicks,” shopkick’s proprietary reward currency, to shoppers for visiting stores, browsing lookbooks or interacting with products.

New York -- Importers and manufacturers who sell to America's major retailers continue to be optimistic regarding a strong fourth quarter and holiday shopping season, according to Capital Business Credit, a non-bank lender that services the retail sector.