Retail

Wages

Planning is underway for Chain Store Age’s 54th annual SPECS conference, which will be held March 18-20, 2018, at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine (Dallas), Texas. The event will have attendees that are retail and foodservice executives involved in the planning, design, construction and maintenance of stores and restaurants nationwide.

Silver Jeans Co.’s newest service solves one of female consumers’ most dreaded tasks — shopping for jeans.   By partnering with Fitcode, a fashion-data company that specializes in women's denim, Silver Jeans Co. now has a way to deliver a personalized, fit-focused shopping experience. Integrated on the retailer’s e-commerce site, the service allows consumers to take a fit quiz, and then shop personalized style recommendations tailored to their unique body types.  

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Dollar General wants to make it easier for its employees to pursue higher education.   In a newly announced partnership with Bellevue University, all full-time and part-time Dollar General employees now qualify for $8,000 and $5,250 respectively in tuition assistance after working at Dollar General for a minimum of 30 days. Plus, immediate family members of employees are eligible for up to $2,625, as well.  

We have a tendency to take things that have been with us forever, reinvent them, and give them new names. Mixed-use centers, for instance, are essentially the 21st century version of downtowns. But whereas America’s towns grew up organically alongside harbors, rivers, and transportation crossroads, mixed-use centers aren’t always able to be so logically placed.

As retailers consider how to best use physical spaces in a digital world, Nordstrom is going "local," debuting a small-format concept that has no dedicated inventory.

Streets of St. Charles (bottom right)