Consumer Electronics

Fort Worth, Texas - RadioShack has opened two new concept stores in China and Malaysia, marking the brand's most recent moves throughout Asia and Southeast Asia.

Working with joint venture partner FIH (First Honest Enterprises Limited), RadioShack introduced its first concept store in China on March 21 with a grand opening ceremony at Huacao Town, Shanghai. RadioShack and franchise partner Berjaya Retail Berhad also relaunched a completely renovated existing store at Mid Valley Megamall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 26.

New York -- Wesfield Garden State Plaza, in Paramus, N.J., is merging the digital experience with the physical one. The shopping center has installed a series of 7-ft. tall, ultra-high definition touch-screen displays, called “digital storefronts,” in its just-opened Fashion District wing. The new wing adds 55,000 sq. ft. over two floors and 22 new stores and restaurants to the mall

Washington, D.C. – In a statement submitted to the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on April 8, the National Retail Federation (NRF) urged Congress to address what it sees as an increasing threat to retailers: patent trolls. Patent trolls are entities that purchase overly-broad patents with the sole intent of suing retailers and other end-users of technology that allegedly infringe on those patents.

Oxford, U.K. -- Vuzix Corp., a U.K.-based supplier of video eyewear and smart glasses products, and Vision Smarts, a Belgian company that develops, distributes and supports software libraries for image recognition and real-time video analysis, have created a custom built-version of the “pic2shop” application specifically for use with the M100 Smart Glasses.

By Scott Klatsky, director of retail leasing, Time Equities, Inc.

New York City is the world’s retail hub — and within the city are major opportunities for retail expansion.

In fact, Time Equities, Inc., has availabilities all over Manhattan — from Greenwich Village/NYU to Midtown to Upper West Side to Tribeca to Financial District ... even Brooklyn Heights.

Boston -- Berkshire Partners LLC, the Boston-based investment firm, and Glen T. Senk, a New York-based retail and consumer executive, are partnering to co-invest in innovative, high-growth retail and consumer businesses. Berkshire Partners has initially committed $350 million to future investments alongside Senk and his newly formed firm, Front Row Partners LLC, where he serves as chairman and CEO.

The recent introduction of Retail Site Intelligence (RSI), a store technology platform based on the ZigBee wireless standard and collaboratively released by Kroger, EInfochips and Wincor-Nixdor, reinforces the coming explosion of sensing technologies in retail.

Former Dell and Best Buy executive William Hutchinson is joining Sears Holdings at SVP and president of supply chain.

Hutchinson spent seven years with Dell and most recently served as vp of global fulfillment and logistics for the Round Rock, Texas-based company. In his new role Hutchinson will be accountable for all aspects of the company's supply chain, including distribution, transportation, customs compliance and global sourcing. He is filling a role previously held by Raj Penkar, who will retire from the company on May 31.