Target, Inc.

Multichannel integration hasn’t exactly been Target’s strong suit to date, but this holiday season could be different if the company is able to successfully roll out an order online, pick up in store service.

Two hundred Target stores will begin offering the EveryOne brand of organics and all nature health and beauty items from EO products.

The company bills itself as theoriginal and ultimate essential oil based personal care company and said its products are designed to meet the increasing demand for healthy body products at a great price. Target will offer EO’s EveryOne Soap in Citrus + Mint, EveryOne Soap in Coconut + Lemon, and EveryOne Lotion in Coconut + Lemon in a 32 ounce pump bottle that retails for less than $10.

Target’s entry into the world of video streaming with a service called Target Ticket is said to offer instant access to 15,000 titles and serve as an alternative to the Apple’s iTunes, Walmart’s Vudi and Netflix.

The service will work with Windows, Xbox, Android and Apple devices and was tested with Target employees, according to published reports. A roll out is said to be imminent with content providers including, ABC, AMC, CBS, CW, Fox, FX, HBO, The WB, NBC, Showtime, Starz and USA.

Retailers were already leery about the outlook for consumer spending this holiday season and reports Wednesday of record auto sales in August only add to the concern.

Both Walmart and Target reported disappointing second quarter sales and tempered their outlook for the full year. Conversely, car salespeople across the country were clinking champagne glasses and cashing commission checks as their employers, everyone from Mazda to Honda to Porsche and Ford, said August was a record month.

Dallas -- SRS Real Estate Partners (SRS) announces highlights of August transactions and new assignments.

Atlanta:
Shoe Carnival has executed a new lease for an 11,542-sq.-ft. space at Heritage Pavilion in Smyrna, Ga. The new location is expected to open in October 2013. SRS represented the tenant in this transaction. Developers Diversified Realty represented the landlord.

Aventura, Fla. — Best Buy has signed a long-term lease renewal for 45,729 sq. ft. at Aventura Commons in Aventura, Fla., according to the Berkowitz Development Group, the landlord.

Other national tenants in the 267,000-sq.-ft. center include Target, Whole Foods, PetSmart and Ulta.

Chicago — Transwestern’s Chicago office has brokered the sale of the 236,173-sq.-ft. Deer Grove Shopping Centre in Palatine, Ill., to Ramco Gershenson for $20 million. Transwestern www.transwestern.net represented the seller, C-III Asset Management.

The property is anchored by Dominick’s, a Chicago-based grocer, and national tenants including TJ Maxx/Home Goods, Petco and Staples. A Target and Home Depot shadow anchor the property.

As if competing against Target, Best Buy and Amazon.com isn’t challenging enough, nationwide the fast-food “strike” which took place Thursday offered a glimpse of the type of headline-grabbing, disruptive activities Walmart can expect from its opponents this holiday season.

Millennials and boomers are driving an urban push

Generations after people deserted cities for the suburbs, young millennial-generation adults and older baby-boomer adults are moving back downtown.

Retailers aren't far behind, and new, seemingly instant neighborhoods — complete with housing, retail, offices and other forms of real estate — are springing up in redevelopment areas of cities across the country.

Widening competition for commodity grocery sales is changing grocery-anchored shopping centers.

Supermarket-anchored shopping centers haven't changed much since the invention of suburbia. Find a good location, sign a grocery anchor, get a construction loan and some inline local, regional and maybe national retailers, and you're in business.

Today, however, supermarkets are beginning to change, and supermarket-anchored shopping centers, of course, must follow along.

Why are grocers changing? Competition from all sides.