Retail

Atlanta - Avison Young has completed the $15 million sale of Brannon Crossing, an upscale shopping center with 60,780 sq. ft. of leasable space located at 405-435 Peachtree Parkway in Cumming, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta.    The transaction comes on the heels of the firm’s recent disposition of the 27,057-sq.-ft. Lindbergh Crossing Shopping Center in Atlanta for $7.06 million.   

Seattle - Starbucks Coffee Company isn’t resting on its laurels. The chain’s five-year strategic growth plan—unveiled Thursday at its biennial Investor Day—includes new store formats,  expanded food offerings, and digital initiatives.  

New York – Earning a reputation is not always a good thing, but in Google’s case it is a positive development. Google has received top ranking in the new Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) RepTrak Study from Reputation Index. Google beat out number two company Microsoft, which held the top spot in 2012 and 2013. Nestle exited the top 10 list this year, while Lego is the one new entrant. The full top 10 list is:   1. Google 2. Microsoft 3. Walt Disney

NEW YORK — Chain Store age sister publication Retailing Today has released the findings of its first "Best Retailers to Work With" research report.   The exclusive research report examines suppliers’ perceptions of the retail industry in areas such as innovation, collaboration, digital readiness, expectations of trading partners and reputational factors.  

Philadelphia – Destination Maternity Corp. swung to a net loss of $2.48 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 from net earnings of $5.63 million in the same quarter last year. Higher cost of goods sold, as well as higher selling, general and administrative (SG&A) charges and other charges, helped push Destination Maternity out the black and into the red.   Net sales fell 5% to $122.05 million from $128.25 million. Same-store sales dropped 5%.  

New York - On the heels of its eight straight quarterly loss, Aeropostale said it would close about 75 stores in the current quarter, and could close 50 to 75 more namesake locations in 2015, and 126 P.S. from Aeropostale stores by the end of January.   The struggling teen retailer reported a net loss of $52.3 million in the third quarter ended Nov. 1,  up from $25.6 million, in the year ago period. It also forecast a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss.  

Toronto, Canada – Hudson’s Bay Company is launching a new credit card program with Capital One Financial Corp. that includes the Saks Fifth Avenue banner. The agreement is also planned to add the Lord & Taylor credit card program in June 2015, subject to certain closing conditions.  

San Jose, Calif. - Cyber Monday (Dec. 1) saw nearly 30% more online shopping activity than any other shopping day during the 2014 Thanksgiving-to-Cyber Monday holiday timeframe. Data from SLI Systems outlining e-commerce activity across online retailers in the U.S. during the five-day period reveals that Cyber Monday at 10:00 PM EST was the peak online shopping hour.  Nearly 40% of the online shopping was conducted on mobile devices. Other key findings from the study include: