Retail

At the recent GlobalShop show in Las Vegas two trade groups serving the visual merchandising industry said their boards voted to pursue a merger agreement.

The boards of directors of the Association for Retail Environments (ARE) and the Point of Purchase Advertising International (POPAI) voted to enter a due diligence phase and work in good faith toward a definitive agreement to merge the two associations.

Boston -- Cushman & Wakefield announced the sale of South Cape Village in Mashpee, Massachusetts, to Dividend Capital. The Cushman & Wakefield team oversaw the $35.45 million transaction of the Roche Brothers-anchored lifestyle center on behalf of Mashpee Investors, LLC.    

Memphis, Tenn. -- Fred's Super Dollar has announced several key management changes, including the appointment of Walgreens veteran Bryan Pugh as chief merchandising and marketing officer.  

In other changes, Craig Barnes has been promoted to executive VP supply chain, global and domestic logistics; and Mike Holligan has been promoted to executive VP store operations.
 

On the eve of its next fundraising campaign, Publix is celebrating 20 years of raising more than $51 million for the March of Dimes.

To support more breakthroughs for babies, the grocery giant will ask its customers to join them in their annual fundraising drive from April 6-26. The register campaign coincides with March for Babies, the March of Dimes signature event, which occurs on April 25 in most areas. Associates will sell the cutouts at the checkout and ask customers to sign their name or the name of a baby they love.

Reading, Pa. -- Specialty retailer Soft Surroundings has chosen Ambius Premium Scenting to enhance the shopping experience for its customers at all 18 retail locations. The scenting is designed to create greater customer dwell time and increase purchasing intent for this innovative retailer.

New York -- U.S. companies spend $2 billion on loyalty programs, but the investment isn’t yielding the type of increased engagement which drove implementation of the programs, according to a new report from Capgemini Consulting. For example, the firm found that the average U.S. household is a member of 21 loyalty programs, but only actively uses 44% of them.

The mall is certainly not dead in Puerto Rico, where Taubman Centers Inc. held the grand opening for the Mall of San Juan on Thursday.

The island's first upscale shopping center features a singular collection of retailers, more than 60% of which are unique-to-market and the Caribbean's only Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue. The 650,000-square-foot shopping center was developed through a partnership between Taubman and New Century Development, Inc.

In its quest to offer its customers everything from one-hour delivery of toilet paper to instant TV streaming, Amazon now wants to dominate the market in cloud storage with a dirt cheap new plan.

For $5 a month, customers can sign up for Amazon Cloud Drive and store as much digital content as they want. With the unlimited plans, customers no longer need to worry about how much storage is needed to keep their content safe and secure: they can choose either the Unlimited Photos Plan or Unlimited Everything Plan and only pay one flat fee per year.