eCommerce

Boulder, Col. -- Discount grocer Aldi ranks as the nation’s low-price grocery leader, according to a recent consumer survey conducted by Market Force Information.

New York City -- Cushman & Wakefield announced that Anthropologie will replace the Lowes movie theater on the northwest corner of Third Avenue and 71st Street, in Manhattan.

The theater, which had occupied the space for 50 years, closed at the end of 2010.

The apparel retailer, which has three other locations in New York City (50 Rockefeller Plaza, 85 Fifth Avenue and 375 West Broadway) will occupy approximately 15,000 sq. ft., combining the ground floor and lower level.

Northbrook, Ill. -- Pine Tree Commercial Realty and New York City-based Silverpeak Real Estate Partners announced they have formed a joint venture with the goal of acquiring retail assets and portfolios across the United States.

According to Chris Westfahl, principal of Silverpeak, and Peter Borzak, co-founder and principal of Pine Tree, the new JV – Pine Tree Silverpeak Retail Partners LLC – plans to pursue transactions greater than $10 million and across the risk spectrum, ranging from raw land for development to stabilized core assets.

The number of planned store closures at Talbot’s was bumped to 110 units recently when the company reported disappointing first-quarter results and indicated most of the underperforming units would close during the second half of the year.

San Mateo, Calif. -- Keynote Systems, which provides Internet and mobile cloud monitoring, announced that BJ’s Wholesale Club is using various Keynote solutions for optimizing the performance of its website.

For the first phase of the project, Keynote ran peak load tests to ensure that all components of BJ’s site were fully prepared to handle expected usage before the site went live.

CHICAGO and CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and SPRINGFIELD, Mass. and BOSTON — Through a partnership with Incentive Targeting and HaloEffect, Big Y Foods will become the first grocery retailer to offer Groupon deals digitally loaded to shoppers’ loyalty cards, the companies announced.

New York City -- A $15 billion share buyback program, unveiled earlier in June, will allow Wal-Mart Stores’ founder Sam Walton’s descendants to see their stake in the chain edge up above 50%.

After Walton died in 1992, family members retained a stake of around 38% from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. Starting in 2003, a series of big share buybacks began to push the family stake higher, to 43% in 2008 and now to 49%, according to the latest filings.

Atlanta -- Jones Lang LaSalle said Tuesday it has been named the new leasing and/or property manager for five retail properties in Arkansas, North Carolina, New York and Ohio.

The portfolio, owned by a variety of institutional investors, includes open-air shopping centers and a single-tenant property in Manhattan.