Consumer Electronics

New York - L.L. Bean provided the best overall customer service in the fiscal fourth quarter 2014, topping the first quarterly release of Stella Benchmarks. Companies included are part of StellaService’s daily customer care evaluations and weekly product orders.

Two companies – J.Crew and L.L. Bean – managed to rank in the Top 25 overall every month in 2014. So, it comes as no surprise that those two retailers are at the top of the most recent benchmarks.

Walgreens is opening a massive new store, the drug chain's 15th flagship, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The new store is 35,000-plus feet and is Walgreens' 12th store on Oahu and 18th in Hawaii.

The store also boasts culturally inspired design reflective of elements of traditional Hawaiian architecture, as well as components of the natural landscape.

Minneapolis – While some retailers have been raising their spending threshold for free shipping in the past year or so, Target Corp. is taking the opposite approach. Target now offers free shipping for orders of $25 or more. The retailer said the price cut follows an enthusiastic response to its free-shipping offer during the holiday shopping season.

That is half the $50 minimum Target previously required for free shipping. The free rate applies to standard shipments that take three to five business days to arrive.

Best Buy is looking to drive growth through innovation by opening a new technology center in the Seattle area this spring.

The company joins a growing array of retailers, including Staples and Sears, that have been opening or expanding offices in Seattle in order to tap into the city’s wealth of tech talent.

By Navneet Loiwal, Shopular

Mobile was all the rage during the 2014 holiday buying season. But the mobile buzz of late hasn’t just been about mobile purchasing. More consumers are now retail deal-hunting by mobile than in previous years – creating an entirely new paradigm for handheld devices as it relates to information gathering and comparative shopping, versus the act of completing an actual purchase.
 

Sears Holdings continues to lose money –- lots of it –- and same store sales declined again during the holidays, but the severity of the company’s losses have diminished, which has Chairman and CEO Edward Lampert believing further improvement is coming as the company transforms to what he calls “a leading integrated membership-focused company.”  

RadioShack has received court approval for its plan to sell the leases to more than 1,100 stores that it will close by the end of February, according to Reuters.

Milwaukee -- Contracts are finalized and on-site work will soon begin on The Corners of Brookfield, a new 750,000-sq.-ft. premier lifestyle center that will be located on approximately 19 acres of land bounded by West Bluemound Road, North Barker Road and I-94 near Milwaukee.

The final development agreement has been signed with the Town of Brookfield, demolition of the vacant Menards building on The Corners project site will begin in the coming weeks and a formal groundbreaking is planned for spring 2015.