Retail

Whitehouse, Ohio -- Devonshire REIT announced the acquisition of three shopping centers at a total cost of $69.75 million: Maple Hill Mall in Kalamazoo, Mich., Alpine Summit Shopping Center in Grand Rapids, Mich. and Northwest Crossings Shopping Center in Knoxville, Tenn.  

Englewood, Colo. -- Sports Authority will host grand opening events for its new and improved stores in the Las Vegas area on Saturday, Nov. 8, at 8 a.m.  

By Jeremy Geiger, Retailigence   The headline is bold, but yes, 2014 is the year of hyperlocal mobile advertising, and there are three very important trends converging today to make this happen.   The first is smartphone proliferation; according to eMarketer, smartphone users worldwide will total nearly 2 billion in 2014.   

Arlington, Va. -- The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and a group of merchant associations have sent a letter on the state of cybersecurity in the U.S. and how the payments system works in a letter to the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) and the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU). The letter dispels what the merchant groups say are many misconceptions the credit unions have been driving regarding recent cyberattacks and the response by retailers and financial institutions. 

Waterbury, Conn. –- Likely spurred by back-to-school needs, consumers increased their spending on books 13% in the third quarter of 2014 compared to the same quarter the prior year. According to the quarterly Chase Freedom Lifestyle Index quarterly barometer of consumer trends based on aggregated Chase Freedom cardholder spending data, spending at craft stores (up 7%) also rose significantly in the quarter.  

Redwood Shores, Calif. -- Kohl’s has overhauled its core merchandising, inventory, and pricing operations with the launch of a new Oracle Retail Merchandise Operations Management solution, allowing the retailer to coordinate a unified system of record for inventory to better serve multi-channel customers and to simplify its business user experience.  

San Francisco –- Compared to non-users, Twitter users start holiday shopping earlier, spend more and are more prone to impulse purchases. According to a new study conducted by brand research firm DB5 for Twitter, more than a third (34%) of Twitter users have already begun thinking about holiday shopping, and 81% say they love holiday shopping, compared to 56% of non-users.  

Bentonville, Ark. -- Walmart is upping the ante on holiday shopping. The chain announced that, starting Saturday, Nov. 1, it will reduce prices on more than 20,000 items. Walmart is also launching its holiday promotions on the first weekend in November to get a jump on what is expected to be a highly competitive selling season.