Target, Inc.

Target Corp. is looking to make getting ready for back to school quick and easy for families this autumn with an innovative new way to shop for school supplies.

The retailer is launching a service called School List Assist. The online hub will offer a curated assortment of the most common K-8 supplies on the list and a convenient new way for guests to find what they need. Parents can purchase the school supplies their kids need and then pick them up in store or have them shipped to their homes.

Chicago -- Starbucks Corp. is ratcheting up its already significant commitment to job creation.

The coffee giant is teaming up with such other retail powerhouses as Walmart, CVS Health, Walgreens, Macy’s, Target and J.C. Penney in an ambitious jobs program to hire 100,000 16- to 24-year-olds "who face systemic barriers to jobs and education" by 2018 through apprenticeships, internships, training programs, and both part-time and full-time jobs.

When it comes to payments, times are changing. Fast. Retailers find themselves in an uncertain world: after a few rough years of data breaches, theft, and fraud, retailers are already feeling pretty beat up. But despite a resulting emphasis on data security and privacy, retailers find they have no room to pause while they secure their enterprises as tightly as they would like. Consumers are moving fast, and retailers must keep up.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. is putting a spotlight on how the “Internet of Things“(IoT) will transform consumers’ homes and lives.

The company has opened an experimental space that provides an upfront and personal look at how the IoT can connects everyday items like thermostats and door locks. The move follows the opening of Sears’s “Connected Solutions” flagship in San Bruno, California.

Target Corp. is putting a spotlight on how the “Internet of Things“(IoT) will transform consumers’ homes and lives.

Phoenix -- DTZ, a leader in commercial real estate services, announced that a limited partnership formed by Weingarten Realty Investors of Houston acquired The Summit at Scottsdale, a 190,408-sq.-ft. retail center anchored by Safeway and Target, for $54.1 million.

Donahue Schriber Realty Group, L.P., of Costa Mesa, California, was the seller of the property located on the southeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Ashler Hills Drive in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Target Corp.’s Bullseye blog has posted a Q&A with the company’s new chief information officer, Mike McNamara. The British native arrived at Target in February 2015, after 15 years with Tesco PLC.

Here is the Bullseye Q&A with McNamara:

It might seem counterintuitive to suggest that Houston, the nation’s fourth most populous city, is ever in danger of being overlooked, but the reality is that, for a long time, this rapidly growing Texas metropolis has frequently not been thought about in the same category as its peers. That is changing, however, and in many ways Houston has become that gateway market it has always longed to be. With the kind of population growth the city has been experiencing, population projections of 8 million - 9 million people in the not-too-distant future do not seem too far-fetched.