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. 

Walmart continues to expand its view of Black Friday and is encouraging shoppers to do the same by rethinking the practice of waiting in line on Black Friday to secure limited quantities of merchandise.

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

 

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in September 2013 versus September 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. In the aftermath of back-to-school season, Walmart and Staples appear to be trying to clear out all remaining school and office supplies. Staples accomplished this by improving its previous offer of $5 off with purchase of $30 to $10 off and also cut backpack prices by 50%. Walmart shifted the focus from school to office, with a “Run Your Business for Less” promotion.

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.  

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.  

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

Walmart and Sam’s Club suppliers are in for a holiday treat of sorts when Sam’s Club hosts an upcoming meeting of the Bentonville Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce.

For the first time ever, the chamber’s Walstreet Speaker Series will be held in the expansive auditorium at Sam’s Club home office in Bentonville, Ark., with Walmart’s EVP of merchandising operations Scott Huff serving as the guest speaker.