Discount Store

Smithfield Properties has sold five properties in Chicago to the Acadia Realty Trust for $150 million, reported the deal’s broker, Mid-America Real Estate Corp.   The properties were:   • North Kingsbury Center on the corner of North Avenue and North Kingsbury Street, with tenants including Old Navy, Pier 1 Imports, Blick Art Materials, and Modani Furniture.  

Dollar General announced a major hiring initiative to support its continued expansion.   The discounter said that within the next month it intends to hire 10,000 new employees to support planned store openings and fill current vacancies. The chain will hold approximately 600 localized hiring events through September. It is looking to hire both full-time and part-time positions, including store managers, assistant store managers, lead sales associates and store associates.  

I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about an article I read earlier this summer, a piece by Krystina Gustafson that appeared on cnbc.com entitled, “For retailers, closing stores isn't as easy as it once was.”  

More smaller, “flex-format” stores are in Target’s future.

Target Corp. CEO Brian Cornell sees the chain eventually opening hundreds of smaller “flex-format” stores, he told reporters Wednesday prior to the company’s fall national meeting at its Minneapolis headquarters, Bloomberg reported.

Target has opened 23 smaller stores in major cities, with plans to add nine more this year, including one in the Tribeca section of downtown Manhattan.

Five Below will open its first store in the state of Minnesota, Marketplace Shopping Center in St. Cloud, on Sept. 23. And more are in the works.    The company will also be opening two other Minnesota locations, in Brooklyn Center and Osseo, on Oct. 7.   

Boating goods retailer West Marine has leased 14,650 sq. ft. at St. Georges Crossing, bringing the Woodbridge, New Jersey, center to full occupancy.   Leasing agent for the center, Levin Management, reports that several other centers in its portfolio have reached 100% occupancy in recent months, indicating renewed strength in both the economy and retail in the Northeast. Levin handles a portfolio of 95 properties in that region and in Mid-Atlantic states.  

The real retailer winners are those that truly “listen” to their customers, and then use learned details to motivate consumers to shop.   By perfecting this practice, Amazon.com has earned the highest amount of mentions and awareness across social networks, and Tiffany & Co. was the most passionately and positively discussed brand.  

A new study from RBC Capital reveals that reversing Banana Republic’s ongoing sales decline is not going to be an easy fix for Gap Inc., reported thestreet.com.
 
In the survey, 48% of millennials polled said they disliked the chain compared to 22% who said they liked it. A majority of non-millennials also said they disliked the brand.