Retail

San Jose, Calif. - On average, consumers say 64% of their back-to-school shopping will take place in-store, the rest online via computer or mobile device. A new survey of 1,001 U.S. parents with school-age children from customer experience solutions provider Baynote and The E-tailing Group also shows that 40% of consumers say that paper catalogs influence their in-store purchases, more than any other channel.

Dallas - On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, has appointed Ward Whitworth as president of On The Border. The move follows the resignation of On The Border CEO Steve Clark, who has committed to stay on for a period of time in order to ensure a smooth transition to new leadership.

New York – Saks Fifth Avenue and Party City are both utilizing the Scandit software-based barcode scanning and data capture platform for smartphones, tablets and wearable computing devices. Using Scandit’s Barcode Scanner SDK, the retailers are able to offer a variety of consumer- and employee-facing applications, including mobile shopping, clienteling, mobile point-of-sale, asset tracking and product information gathering.  

Cleveland -- Shopping ranks as a favorite activity among nearly half of all teens and young adults aged 13 to 24, according to a new survey by Forest City in partnership with Alexander Babbage. Shopping at malls ranked above a virtual shopping experience among the entire group, with the 13-to-17-year-old age group showing the strongest preference for a bricks-and-mortar shopping experience.

New York -- Target Corp. on Sunday, July 27, will unveil its small-store format, TargetExpress, in Minneapolis.

The 20,000-sq.-ft. store is located on the street level on an apartment building near the University of Minnesota campus and is also close to the retailer’s headquarters.  

River Forest, Ill. — Richard Spinell, principal of Mid-America Asset Management Inc., announced that the firm recently secured three leases at River Forest Town Center in River Forest, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago.

Massage Envy, Accelerated Rehabilitation, and Native Foods signed leases at River Forest Town Center. Massage Envy signed on for 3,946 sq. ft. and Accelerated Rehabilitation signed for 3,077 sq. ft. Both tenants are taking half of the former Talbot’s space.

Framingham, Mass. - Cumberland Farms, is launching its free SmartPay Check-Link Business payment program, which enables business owners to save 10 cents on every gallon of gas for their fleet of vehicles. SmartPay Business offers two ways to save – the SmartPay Business Card and the SmartPay Business Mobile App.

Amazon has added hundreds of thousands of songs and hundreds of new, expert-programmed Prime Playlists to its Prime Music catalog.