Costco Wholesale Corp.

Costco hopes to sell more high-definition televisions and merchandise in clubs after going live with its revamped Costco TV Network.

The warehouse club leader deployed 4K technology to its existing in-warehouse TV network in a move designed to boost sales of televisions and help brands who use the network’s promotional capabilities better connect with shoppers. Powered by PRN, a division of Stratacache and longtime Costco partner, the TV network is in all 487 of the retailer’s U.S. clubs.

CST Brands is not a household name in the retail industry, but it is fast becoming one. The company has ambitious plans to grow through new store construction and acquisitions and just made several key executive moves to help make things happen.

In what was arguably one of the strangest holiday season in recent memory – for a variety of reasons – retailers have reported a variety of results ranging from impressive to outright awful.

Costco Wholesale Corporation on Wednesday reported net sales of $12.5 billion for the month of December, which includes the five weeks ended Jan. 3, 2016, an increase of 3%.

For the 18 weeks ended Jan. 3, 2016, the company reported net sales of $41.7 billion, an increase of 2%.

Comparable sales across Costco's U.S. network were up 3% across both time frames.

I left Walmart to pursue what I saw as the future of retail. In my exit interview with Mike Duke (at that time president and CEO of Walmart International) he asked me what I meant by the future of retail. Having worked in the international division, Sam’s Club and Costco prior to that, the future I saw at the time revolved around leveraging data and managing technology to understand customers in a granular fashion and speaking to them directly as individuals with highly lifestyle relevant products and services.

“Now Trending” is an exclusive online series to chainstoreage.com, featuring trending topics that impact the retail real estate landscape.

Retailers need to improve several aspects of their omnichannel customer engagement strategies if they want to truly satisfy customers.

The demise of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. elevated the retail vacancy rate along central New Jersey’s major shopping corridors to 8.8% from 7.5% in 2014.

That’s according to the latest study by R.J. Brunelli & Co. Despite the uptick, the region’s 2015 vacancy factor remained a healthy distance from the 10.2% recorded in 2013 and the eight-year high of 10.5% set in 2011, but was well above the period’s low point of 4.8% posted in 2008.