Apple, Inc.

New York -- Google. Inc. may be close to signing a lease for its first-ever freestanding retail store in the United States, according to Crain’s New York Business. The site is located in New York City’s SoHo area, at 131 Greene Street, and is just a block away from an Apple store. The search giant reportedly wants to open brick-and-mortar stores to showcase its various gadgets, ranging from the Nexus line of smartphones and tablets to the Chromebook Pixel laptop. The company is also getting ready to go public with its Google Glass eyewear and smartwatches.

CROSSROADS

Location: Irvine, Calif., at the intersection of Culver Drive and Barranca Parkway. Average daily traffic is 43,000 vehicles.

Size: 334,000-sq.-ft. community center

Developer: Irvine Co. Retail Properties

As a category of shopping center, open-air centers have been evolving ever since the days they were called lifestyle centers. New categories of tenants have evolved, along with new ways of creating compelling tenant mixes and environments. We asked three open-air owners to tell us about current and possible future directions that evolution may take.

 

The companies are San Diego-based American Assets Trust; Irvine Co. Retail Properties in Irvine, Calif.; and Columbus, Ohio-based Glimcher Realty Trust. Here’s what they had to say.

Think brick-and-mortar retail is doomed in an increasingly digital world? Visit Sephora, where consumers line up to sample the dizzying array of beauty products. Watch as a bunch of excited kids go through the rounds at Build-A-Bear-Workshop. Listen as a pharmacist at Walgreens gives some advice to a harried mom whose kids are coming down with something. Stop in at H-E-B, Whole Foods Market or some other great supermarket and breathe in the tantalizing aromas. Fool around with the latest gadgets at Apple or one of the new generation of AT&T and Verizon stores.

Minneapolis -- APG Cash Drawer LLC is releasing the BluePro Bluetooth interface for cash drawers. Now available for purchase through APG's distribution partners, the BluePro Bluetooth interface will enable cash drawer control via Bluetooth communication and allows retailers to wirelessly synchronize and create a one to one relationship between the cash drawer and tablet.      

With approximately 1.5 billion smartphones currently in use today, it is safe to say mobile is radically changing consumer retail behavior. To maximize in-store sales opportunities and minimize hurdles to purchase, retailers must change their approach to reach a new generation of customers steeped in a mobile lifestyle.

But how should retailers best interact with their customers in this new age of mobile? A new innovation from Apple could be one answer: iBeacon.

Cupertino, Calif. – Apple opened its first South American store in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Feb. 15. Brazil is a leading global market for smartphones and media reports indicate more than 1,700 customers attended the opening of the store.

Ed Record, a former finance executive with Stages stores, Kohl’s, Belk and Federated, has been appointed to replace Ken Hannah as CFO at J.C. Penney.

Hannah joined J.C. Penney less than two years ago under the leadership of former CEO Ron Johnson, a former Apple executive who pursued a costly transformation strategy that alienated customers and led to sharp sales declines. Johnson was ousted last April and former J.C. Penney CEO Myron Ullman was brought back to restore growth and undo much of Johnson’s handiwork.