Consumer Electronics

HRC Advisory’s annual CEO and CFO survey revealed a major disconnect between capital investments, retail growth and operating strategies.

Chain Store Age spoke with HRC Advisory CEO Antony Karabus about the survey.

What did you find most surprising about the survey results?

The majority of retailers are not doing a very good job when it comes to integrating online channels with brick-and-mortar stores.

What’s more, many retailers are not properly balancing their investment spend, sometimes investing more in online while neglecting their physical stores, which puts them in danger of losing market share.

The two executives behind Curacao, a Los Angeles-based department store chain targeting Hispanics, have left the company to start a new retail brand called Star World.

GameStop is joining Staples in what could be new trend this year of retailers just saying no to opening on Thanksgiving Day.

GameStop announced Monday that its stores will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. GameStop’s other brands such as Spring Mobile, Simply Mac, Cricket Wireless stores, and the new ThinkGeek retail store will also be closed on Thanksgiving Day.

When Macy’s announced in early September that it planned to close between 35 and 40 underperforming stores, the move certainly made headlines. Unfortunately for Macy’s, it also made sense. Because, as most analysts and industry observers can attest, it only reaffirmed a storyline that has been developing for many years now: department stores are in trouble.

Sears holdings has made a key acquisition to bolster its connected home effort and named a new executive to lead its home service division.

The retailer said it hired former Best Buy executive Sean Skelley as president of its Home Services division. Skelley spent 20 years at Best Buy but most recently served as senior VP of service solutions for Asurion, global provider of device protection and support services for smartphones, tablets, consumer electronics and appliances.

Phoenix -- BIG Shopping Centers USA and RED Development announced the addition of five retail assets totaling nearly 1.5 million sq. ft. in Arizona, Nebraska and Wisconsin to their recently launched joint venture BIG RED Portfolio.

The joint venture was launched in late 2014 with the acquisition of Camelback Colonnade in Phoenix. With the recent acquisition the portfolio now consists of nine retail assets totaling nearly three million sq. ft. in three states.

When it comes to a primary device, consumers of all ages make the same choice by a clear margin.

According to a new survey of 4,000 consumers from Adobe, 92% of millennials consider the smartphone as their primary device.

Tablets show opposite age trends. While 72% of all consumers say they own tablets, baby boomers and 70 and over report higher usage. 87% of respondents use tablets at home, with 66% using it every day. Top activities include reading emails (72%), playing games (60%), sending emails (60%) and shopping (55%)