Department Store

Paris -- French retailing giant Carrefour has joined an investment group aiming to acquire more than a 100 shopping malls in France, Spain, and Italy.

According to a New York Times report, the $2.7 billion deal will add 127 malls to Carrefour’s current 45-mall portfolio. The plan is to create a new, separate property company in which Carrefour would hold a 42% stake. Institutional investors would hold the rest.

Retailers were well represented on the 2013 edition of a best and worst CEOs list compiled by a business professor at a leading university.

Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos topped the list of best CEOs, compiled by Sydney Finkelstein, associate dean for executive education and the Steven Roth professor of management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Making the list of worst CEOs were former J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson and current Sears Holdings chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert.

Millburn, N.J. – A 30-year-old man was fatally shot during a carjacking at The Mall at Short Hills, an upscale shopping center in Millburn, N.J. According to the Newark Star-Ledger, the man and his wife were entering their Range Rover on a parking deck at around 9 p.m., on Dec. 15, following an evening of holiday shopping at the mall when two men fired multiple shots.

New York -- Analysis has uncovered a 46% increase in social networking referrals to top 500 retail websites during the most critical week of the year, just one of four key trends identified in a report by Experian Marketing Services.

The 2013 holiday marketing analysis from the holiday shopping season's peak week, the period beginning Thanksgiving and ending on Cyber Monday, cited the following four trends:

It promises to be a mad dash to the finish for the nation’s retailers this week with half of holiday shoppers planning to wrap up their holiday shopping online and nearly one third of shoppers yet to begin spending, according to the latest survey results from the National Retail Federation.

Rakuten LinkShare announced double-digit year-over-year growth during Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, driven primarily by transactions conducted on mobile devices.

Houston – Growth in the Houston retail estate market is expected to follow strong residential real estate growth in 2014. According to a report from NewQuest Properties delivered at the recent BoyarMiller Real Estate Forum, there are about 15 new shopping centers planned or under way in Houston.

In addition, the Houston retail sector is struggling to keep up with growth in the city and experiencing very low vacancy and default rates

New York -- Due to the holiday rush and related closings, Chain Store Age has extended the deadline for its 32nd annual Retail Store of the Year Design Competition until Wednesday, January 8, 2014.

More than 20 competition categories are featured, including department stores, supermarkets, discounters, restaurants, convenience stores, specialty stores, service, sustainability and pop-up stores. This year, for the first time, the competition also includes the category of in-store digital innovation.