Apparel

As part of our preview coverage of the upcoming International Council of Shopping Centers’ New York deal-making convention in New York City, Dec. 6 and 7, Chain Store Age talked with Joseph Coradino, president of Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust/PREIT Services, Philadelphia, about retailer attitude and potential deals at the New York convention.

What do you expect the retailer attitude to be at the ICSC New York deal-making show in early December?

Washington - Amazon.com, Nordstrom and J.C. Penney are just a few of the retailers that made the grade on the list of the top 10 retailers for customer service as selected by shoppers in the sixth annual NRF Foundation/American Express Customers’ Choice survey.

The survey, which asked 9,291 shoppers which retailer provides the best customer service, was conducted by BIGresearch. In alphabetical order, the top 10 retailers for customer service are:

• Amazon.com

• J.C. Penney

New York - Visits to the top 500 retail sites increased 13% on Black Friday, according to data from Experian Hitwise. For the sixth year in a row, Amazon was the top retail site receiving traffic on Black Friday. Walmart was the second most visited retail site, followed by Target. But Target’s visits increased 13% on versus 2009, representing the biggest increase among the top five sites. The top 20 retail sites accounted for 61% of all visits among the top 500 retail sites.

Toronto - Opterus announced that specialty apparel retailer Roots Canada Ltd. has eliminated the use of e-mail at their stores and now remotely manages its 119 locations entirely through Opterus’ Store Ops-Center. Roots, which branded the solution Roots Ops-Center, has taken advantage of Opterus’ Web-based technologies to streamline business processes and improve communications with its stores.

New York - Nordstrom is putting its foot in the bridal business, opening an in-store bridal boutique called the Wedding Suite at its Chicago flagship on North Michigan Avenue, according to the Chicago Tribune. The department store retailer is positioning itself as a one-stop shop for wedding parties, and will unveiling 14 bridal salons at stores nationwide over the next six weeks, the report said.

New York - Macy’s has debuted a new environment for one of its signature businesses—women’s shoes—at its store in Oak Brook, Ill. The plan is for elements of the updated format to be implemented in additional locations going forward.

The revamp, designed by Charles Sparks + Company, Westchester, Ill., has a clean, modern look. It features “runway” fixtures, sweeping lines and monolithic linear shelving concepts. A semi-transparent screen-like segmentation of spaces allows trend statements to flow easily within the overall plan.

Gainesville, Ga. - Addison, Texas-based Coyote Management, L.P. announced that Debora M. Overholt has been named general manager for Lakeshore Mall, in Gainesville, Ga.

Lakeshore Mall, opened in 1969, and is a single-level, 517,153-sq.-ft. enclosed regional mall anchored by J.C. Penney, Sears and Belk.

North Miami Beach, Fla. - Boca Raton, Fla.-based Woolbright Development announced two new tenants for Intracoastal Mall, a 234,000-sq.-ft. shopping center in North Miami Beach.

Hiro’s Yakko-San will open a 4,438-sq.-ft. Japanese restaurant in December 2010. And Dollar Tree has leased 10,200 sq. ft. and is slated to open a new store in early 2011.

Intracoastal Mall is anchored by TJ Maxx, Old Navy, Winn Dixie and Sunrise Cinemas.