Mass Merchant

Mississauga, Ont. – Target Canada has announced the opening dates for 33 additional Canadian store locations spanning across nine provinces, including its first stores in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

Thirty-one store locations are scheduled to open on Nov. 13, and the remaining two locations will open on Nov. 22, completing Target's Canadian store openings for 2013.

New Hyde Park, N.Y. — Kimco Realty Corp. has announced a purchase and sale agreement to acquire a 24-property retail portfolio in New England for $270 million, which includes the assumption of $121.5 million of mortgage debt.

The 1.4-million-sq.-ft. portfolio is 96% occupied. It includes 17 properties in the Boston metropolitan market. Anchor tenants include Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Lowes, Kohl’s, Petco, Pier 1 Imports, Aldi Supermarket, CVS and Walgreens.

New York -- Fountain Capital and Cheney & Mathes Properties have announced through their partnership, Fountain Mathes I, that they have acquired a 450,000-sq.-ft. portfolio of retail shopping centers with 16 properties in 10 states. Each center is shadow-anchored by Wal-Mart projects.

The centers largely contain national credit tenants such as AT&T, Cato, Dollar Tree, GameStop, Hibbett Sports, Payless and Shoe Show. The portfolio is 95% occupied.

Grand Rapids, Mich. -- Meijer announced that it is now operating one of the largest all-clean diesel fleets in North America. As part of its ongoing green initiatives, the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer's fleet utilized innovative technology to improve fuel efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint by nearly 60% since it first began implementing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2010 near-zero emissions standards three years ago.

Phoenix — The metropolitan Phoenix retail market ended the third quarter with a retail vacancy rate at 10.5%, down nearly a full point from 11.3% a year ago, according to CBRE’s Phoenix Retail MarketView report for the third quarter.

The market recorded positive absorption of 385,625 sq. ft. for the quarter and so far this year has absorbed 1.1 million sq. ft.

Boston -- For the second year in a row, Dollar General came out on top in Kantar Retail’s opening price point (OPP) survey, narrowly beating out Walmart Supercenter. The OPP survey, now in its third year, determines how select retailers meet the grocery and consumable needs of shoppers looking for the lowest shelf prices to fulfill their basket requirements.

Mike Graen has left his position as director of innovations and supplier collaboration at Walmart to assume a new role with leading merchandising and marketing services company Crossmark.

Grain will serve as managing director of the Crossmark Center for Collaboration currently under construction adjacent to Walmart’s headquarters on Southwest 8th Street in Bentonville, Ar.

Dodgeville, Wis. — Lands’ End has announced the opening of its first standalone store within a shopping mall — in the Yorktown Center Mall in Lombard, Ill., a Chicago suburb.

The store is slated to open on Nov. 15. For each sale made during the Grand Opening Event, the store will donate $50 to the Glen Ellyn food Pantry for a Thanksgiving Food Box meal.