Retail

Retailers subject to increasing — and costly — environmental scrutiny

“I’m a retailer, not a hazardous waste producer.” If that’s what you think, you may be wrong.

Rockville, Md. — Federal Realty Investment Trust has acquired controlling interests in two shopping centers in Affluent Monmouth County, N.J., for $161 million. Both the Grove at Shrewsbury and Brook 35 are located on Route 35 and serve the emerging bedroom and second home communities of Shrewsbury, Red Bank, Rumson, Fair Haven, Little Silver, and Middletown. The acquisition was made with a combination of downREIT units, cash and the assumption of $68 million of fixed rate debt secured by the properties.

Newegg opened 2014 with a victory over patent trolls.

"Newegg believes that fighting patent trolls is necessary to serve our customers, and to facilitate entrepreneurship and true innovation," said Lee Cheng, Newegg's chief legal officer. "We support the patent system, but believe it is being abused on a massive scale by patent trolls who want to force entrepreneurs into cash settlements to avoid the high cost of defense."

Target “expects more and pays less” for data centers

Unusually high community engagement, user-driven initiatives, mobile growth and a love of all things vintage — that’s the formula behind the growth of ModCloth.com, which hit $100 million in sales just a decade after it launched out of co-founder Susan Gregg Koger’s dorm room back in 2002.

Japanese apparel retailer Fast Retailing remains deliberate in its approach to growth of its Uniqlo brand in the U.S. with plans for five more stores by mid-year.

There are currently 1,300 Uniqlo locations worldwide in 13 countries, but only 17 stores in the U.S. The five new stores the company is adding this spring and summer will be located in King of Prussia, Pa., Stamford, Conn., and Daly City, Concord, and Milpitas, Calif. The company’s other existing stores are clustered in the Northeast with and northern California.

Dublin, Calif. -- Epicor Software Corporation announced that Grupo Axo, the business partner of internationally renowned retail brands within Mexico, has selected the full Epicor Retail Suite to help support its highly successful and expanding retail operations.

Sooner or later, disruption occurs in almost every sphere of human activity. While the radical upending of long-established norms and conventions is not always a positive development, oftentimes disruptive forces enable a burst of creativity and innovation that move an industry toward new levels of success and achievement.