Mass Merchant

Eleven centers opened last year, with 50 more on the drawing boards

The recession lit the fuse that has produced an explosion of outlet center development.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart is working with Autoinsurance.com to offer customers in Arkanas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas an auto insurance comparison service. AutoInsurance.com provides customers with multiple quotes from national insurance carriers including Progressive, Esurance, Safeco, The General and others within minutes.

Wal-Mart plans to offer the service nationwide in the coming months. The launch of this service stems from a successful pilot that took place in Pennsylvania during 2013.

Barely a week after leaving RadioShack, Troy Risch has landed on his feet at rival electronics retailer H.H. Gregg where he will serve as chief operating officer.

Risch will assume his new COO duties at H.H. Gregg May 5. He most recently served as EVP of store operations at RadioShack for 16 months, but left the company April 22. Assuming a leadership role at H.H. Gregg might seem like a potential violation of a non-compete agreement, closer inspection shows that H.H. Gregg and RadioShack don’t have that much in common from a product assortment standpoint.

Indianapolis – Hhgregg Inc. has hired Troy H. Risch as COO. Risch joins Hhgregg from RadioShack, where he served as executive VP of store operations.

Prior to this, Risch held a variety of operational leadership positions with Target Corp., including executive VP of stores. Risch will assume the COO position on May 5, 2014.

New York -- Uniqlo will continue its expansion in the United States by entering the Los Angeles market. The Japanese retail powerhouse announced it will open five stores in the Los Angeles area, starting in August, at South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, followed by a location at Glendale Galleria, Glendale, in September.
   
In October, the company will open at the Beverly Center, Los Angeles, and Northridge Fashion Center, Northridge. In spring 2015, Uniqlo will open a store at Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos.  

Houston, Texas — Baker Katz has acquired four retail properties throughout the greater Houston area — in the neighboring cities of Port Arthur, Lake Jackson, Beaumont and Tomball.

The Port Arthur property is a 90,000-sq.-ft., single-tenant building purchased from the Sutherland Lumber Co. for an undisclosed amount. Baker Katz plans to renovate the building and convert it to a multi-tenant space. Hobby Lobby has signed a 58,000-sq.-ft. lease, and Party City has signed a lease for 13,000 sq. ft.

El Segundo, Calif. – Big 5 Sporting Goods experienced a 72% drop in net income during the first quarter of fiscal 2014, to $2.1 million from $7.5 million in the first quarter of the prior fiscal year. Expenses associated with the retailer’s new e-commerce platform affected its net income.

Reduced demand for firearms, ammunition and related products, as well as weak sales of winter-related products thanks to unseasonably warm and dry conditions in most of the company's western markets affected Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation’s performance in the first quarter ended March 30.