Discount Store

Aston, Pa. - Actions Services Group, a national lighting maintenance, sign maintenance and electrical services company, has signed an agreement with Stage Stores for interior lighting maintenance and electrical services for three of its retail brands. The three retail brands include Bealls, Goody’s and Peebles with store locations across the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

The economic trend for some time now has been a slow and meandering recovery. Despite improving consumer confidence numbers, a surprising first quarter GDP decline of 2.9% speaks to that uncertainty. Retail analysts and observers have a tendency to blame the weather whenever we have a bad economic quarter or when retail sales are unexpectedly sluggish, but I tend to be a little dubious of those explanations. Last winter was definitely rough enough to impact spending, but I don’t think it’s enough to explain the continued issues into the spring.

New York - The back-to-school (BTS) shopping season is already in full swing, with over one-third (37%) of consumers having begun their shopping – up from the 29% who started at this time last year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. And roughly 90% of households indicated a selection of brick-and-mortar retail as a shopping venue for the BTS season.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. - Sears Outlet Stores has leased a 354,000-sq.-ft. former Sears location in Kansas City, expanding outlet store operations and services and developing a new central distribution center for the South-Central region. This new repaird and distribution center is expected to create nearly 160 new jobs to be filled by Kansas City locals.

Dollar Tree said it would acquire Family Dollar in a transformational cash and stock deal valued at $8.5 billion to create a company with more than 13,000 stores and annual sales of $18 billion.

The deal was unanimously approved by the boards of both companies and involves Dollar Tree paying Family Dollar shareholders $59.60 in cash and $14.90 in equivalent Dollar Tree shares.

New York – The 2014 Harris Poll EquiTrend (EQ) study, which measures brand equity for more than 1,500 brands across 170 categories, finds traditional grocery store brands rank highest overall in three of the four regions surveyed. The EQ index examines three key factors of brand equity: familiarity, quality and purchase consideration.

Westminster, Colo. -- Brixmor Property Group, owner and operator of the largest wholly owned U.S. portfolio of grocery-anchored shopping centers, has leased more than 97,000 sq. ft. of retail space to five national retailers at Westminster City Center in Westminster, Colorado. 

Austin, Texas – Parents spend, on average, $659 on school-related costs throughout the year per family. According to a survey from digital coupon provider RetailMeNot, 67% of parents start their back-to-school shopping by the end of July, which is down slightly from 2013 (71%).