Retail

Scarborough, Maine -- Cole Haan is opening a flagship location in the Ginza, Tokyo's premier shopping district. The 2,000-sq.-ft. store debuts the company’s global format. Cole Haan also plans to use the store as a launching point for growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

Architecture firm Anderson Architects in New York led the design of the ground-floor store, in partnership with local architects Garde Co.

Coppell, Texas – Alco Stores Inc. reported a net loss of $8.1 million in the first quarter of its fiscal year, up from a loss of $1.7 million in the year-ago period, amid an elimination of a tax benefit. The company also announced its CFO has left the company.

Net sales decreased 4.1% to $104.7 million, compared to $109.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. Same-store sales, excluding fuel centers, decreased 7.1%. Alco president and CEO Richard Wilson cited several ongoing initiatives as providing promise for future performance.

Santa Monica, Calif. — Macerich is collaborating with HGTV, a home and lifestyle cable network, to create Santa HQ, an interactive holiday experience, at 10 Macerich malls. The initiative aims to add digital and social media to the traditional holiday experience of visiting Santa.

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. — Mid-America Asset Management Inc. has announced that the firm recently secured new retail leases on behalf of three shopping centers in Chicago’s northwest suburbs.

Fruitful Yield has taken 6,630 sq. ft. in North Tower Plaza in Elmwood Park, Illinois. The 26,088-sq.-ft. center features Super Cuts, Great American Bagel and Subway. Mid-America represented the landlord, while JLL represented the tenant.

New York - CloudTags, an omnichannel marketing technology company, is partnering with Brickstream, an in-store analytics vendor. The partnership will enable the analysis of physical store intent and behavioral data through a comprehensive in-store data platform.

Montreal - LightSpeed is launching Advanced Reporting for LightSpeed Cloud, which adds Big Data analytics to LightSpeed’s cloud-based POS system. The analytics capability is designed to give retailers real-time insight into sales, inventory trends and customer preferences.

LightSpeed’s new Advanced Reporting for Cloud includes more than 40 reports that give detailed information on product sales, profits and margins; customer preferences; employee performance; payment methods; and vendor-by-vendor analytics; across all stores and channels.

Armonk, N.Y. – Overall U.S. online retail sales for the week leading up to Father’s Day (June 9-15) were up more than 14% from the same period in 2013. According to the cloud-based IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, Father's Day average order value was $119.37.

By Jason Christoff, PE, LEED AP BD+C

The way business is executed within the retail construction industry may never be the same. The Great Recession is finally behind us, but it has changed how retailers deliver stores, as well as how architecture and engineering professionals design them. The A/E delivery model is constantly being reimagined to meet the needs of the changing market, but typically not as quickly or drastically as within the last five years.