Discount Store

If you want to ferret out the hottest new concepts in retailing, head to the coolest streets in the city, not the suburban mall. So states a new report from Cushman and Wakefield, which rated the 100 hippest and edgiest neighborhoods in America based on assessments from its brokers, appraisers, and property managers nationwide.  

Watch out Best Buy, the nation’s largest ecommerce retailer is on your tail.   According to a report by barrons.com, Amazon has moved ahead of Walmart to take the number two spot, behind Best Buy, as the nation’s largest electronics retailer.    

Ross Stores will open eight new dd’s Discounts stores in the coming week, bringing the coverage of its moderately priced apparel chain to near 190 units. Ribbons will be cut at stores in Delano, Fairfield, and Stockton, California; Margate and Palm Springs, Florida; Marrero, Louisiana; and Pasadena, Texas.  

Primark, one of Europe’s largest apparel retailers, will anchor a complete redevelopment of Macerich’s Kings Plaza in Brooklyn. It will be joined by Spain-based Zara, which the New York Times has called the world’s largest fashion retailer. The Sears store at Kings Plaza will close for renovation in September.  

The renovation of Philadelphia Mills, that city’s largest outlet shopping center, is now complete according to owner Simon. New entrances, lighting, flooring, and dining pavilion highlight the project, which was begun in 2014.   The renovation attracted several new retailers to the location, among them Express Factory, Rack Room Shoes, Steve Madden, and Starbucks.  Longtime tenants such as Saks Off 5th, HomeGoods, and Marshalls followed Simon’s lead with store re-dos of their own.  

Long dependent on low prices to draw customers to stores, Walmart is trying a new traffic-boosting tactic: fun.

Five Below is adding two more stores to its already considerable Texas portfolio.    The fast-growing extreme-value retailer will open two stores in the Rio Grande section of Texas, in the towns of Brownsville and Mission, on June 24, 2016, giving it a total of 53 locations in the state.    The Rio Grande area stores are two of approximately 85 new Five Below stores is opening in 2016,  on top of  71 new stores it opened in 2015.  

Two private equity firms have thrown their hats in the arena to buy Cabela’s.   The firms, New York-based Apax Partners and San Francisco-based TPG Capital,  are each meeting Cabela’s management as part of an auction for the 82-store chain, the New York Post reported.   Bass Pro Shops is also interested in Cabela’s, and has partnered with Goldman Sachs Group’s private equity arm to make an offer for its rival, according to Reuters.