Department Store

Whether employees at Target’s headquarters are able to hold meetings, work out, shoot baskets or have a cookout in a new downtown Minneapolis space is up for consideration on May 3 when the city’s zoning board of adjustment considers granting the retailer a variance.

Boston -- Aberdeen Group’s 3rd annual Retail and Consumer Markets Summit, Retail on Broadway: Game-Changing Technologies -- Creating a Winning Game Plan, will be held May 1-2, at the Millennium Broadway Hotel, New York City.

With its sleek all-white interiors and dramatic glass-steel storefront, Lord & Taylor’s store at Westchester’s Ridge Hill, Yonkers, N.Y., is its most contemporary to date.

NEW YORK — Macy's will soon have a Brazilian feel when the company debuts "O Mercado, the Market at Macy's" on April 22 in about 300 stores and online at Macys.com. The company describes O Mercado as a curated shop of Brazilian products, and it is the next installation of the retailer's "Brasil: A Magical Journey" campaign, which will officially kick off on May 16.

Keeping a store open during a remodel versus closing it until the work is completed was the theme of the SPECS session, “Open Store Remodels: Best Practices for Maintaining the Customer Experience and the Focus on Sales.” The session was part of the Ground-Up Construction and Remodeling workshop track.

Although the speakers had experience with both methodologies, they focused more on ways to keep the store open during the process.

Recovery is a relative term when applied to retail real estate. It’s taken a couple of years of determined optimism, but most in the industry have now reconciled themselves to the realities of the new world order. A world where capital is cautiously invested and most retailers, even those that are opening new stores, have flattened growth rates. Gone are the days of expansive, unrestrained development — replaced instead by measured, deliberate decisions and a renewed focus on redevelopment, relocation and re-evaluation of portfolios.

Toronto -- Sears Canada chief Calvin McDonald told attendees of the retailer’s annual meeting in Toronto on Tuesday that the focus will be on its strongest categories to more quickly effect a turnaround.

Hard goods such as appliances and tools will be a major focus in the company’s three-year turnaround plan, said McDonald. Sears Canada is majority-owned by Sears Holdings Corp.

To be truly fashion-forward, a closet must be refreshed periodically. This is equally true for premiere, class “A” regional malls that pride themselves on offering the hottest apparel and most fashionable retail the industry has to offer. If wardrobe success depends on what’s hanging in your closet, shopping centers hang their success on merchandising savvy and tenant mix.