Walmart

Cincinnati -- Phillips Edison-ARC Grocery Center REIT II Inc. has acquired Laguna 99 Plaza, adding another property in California to the company's portfolio. Laguna 99 Plaza is an 89,188-sq.-ft.grocery store-anchored shopping center located in Elk Grove, California, part of the Sacramento metropolitan statistical area.    Laguna 99 Plaza is anchored by Walmart Neighborhood Market. Other national and regional tenants at the center include GNC, Metro PCS, and Goodwill. 

Bentonville, Ark. -- Following the lead of some other retailers, Walmart is spreading out Black Friday beyond the day after Thanksgiving.

 

Bentonville, Ark. –- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reportedly sent a memo to marketing managers on Oct. 2 saying that sales need to improve for chilled and fresh items in stores, including dairy, meat and produce. 

 

According to the New York Times, the memo cited customer complaints about expired items, as well as the need for less backup inventory and the rotation of perishable items.

 

Minneapolis -- Best Buy has joined the ranks of retailers that have moved up the time their stores will open on Thanksgiving Day. The consumer electronics giant said Tuesday that some 1,000 of its stores will open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, which is one hour earlier than last year. The stores will close at 1 a.m. Friday before reopening at 8 a.m. on November 28 (Black Friday) and close at 10 p.m. that day.  

CurrentC, the mobile payment service under development from a retailer consortium known as Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX, has been getting a lot of attention in the past week. First MCX members CVS and Rite Aid disabled their NFC payment systems to block the rival ApplePay mobile payment service, and then hackers stole the emails of CurrentC users. And despite all this publicity, CurrentC is still in pilot mode.  

London -- Leading British retailer Asda has partnered with ecommerce performance marketing company HookLogic to launch the company’s first venture into the European market.    

 

Retailers can keep customer data safe and also protect themselves against fraud-related losses by complying with PCI Data Security Standards, including the October 2015 deadline for U.S. retailers to accept cards with Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV)-compliant chips, advised Bob Russo, general manager, PCI Security Standards Council.

Denver -- Brixmor Property Group announced it has added nine new small-shop leases at Villa Monaco, dramatically improving the center's occupancy, enhancing the neighborhood center's merchandising mix and strengthening its position in the Denver market.