Mass Merchant

Fort Worth — Market Street – The Woodlands, a mixed-use project north of Houston is welcoming four new tenants. Kate Spade will open a 1,907-sq.-ft. designer fashion store this fall. Also coming this fall are two more clothing stores: a 2,500-sq.-ft. Lucky Brand and a 3,719-sq.-ft. Vineyard Vines.

Just two weeks ago, Tumi opened a travel, business and lifestyle accessories shop.

Facebook is taking another step toward monetizing its vast audience of plugged-in consumers with the planned introduction of paid video ads. As reported in numerous media outlets, Facebook intends to launch 15-second video ads that will play in a user’s newsfeed three times per day for as much $2.5 million per spot.

NEW YORK — Soupman Inc., the parent company of The Original SoupMan, is about to see "the soup that made 'Seinfeld' famous" hit shelves at nearly 500 Walmart stores. 

The brand's soups, which are already sold in more than 4,000 supermarkets nationwide, include the classic soups that made the company famous: lobster bisque, chicken noodle, lentil and tomato bisque. 

Framingham, Mass. – Discount retailers TJ Maxx and Saks Off Fifth outlets are reportedly planning to enter the online sales arena this year. According to Reuters, TJ Maxx parent company TJX Cos. will be making its second attempt at launching a TJ Maxx e-commerce site after a failed attempt in 2005 that cost the company $15 million.

Boston – Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has signed a bill authorizing a sales tax holiday in Massachusetts for the upcoming weekend of Aug. 10. The bill gives consumers a one-time break on the state’s 6.25% sales tax on any ordinarily taxed retail items individually worth up to $2,500. The break does not extend to vehicles, motor boats, tobacco, meals and utilities.

Massachusetts did not offer a sales tax holiday in 2009 but otherwise has designated one weekend in August as a sales tax holiday every year since 2004.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Judge Charles R. Breyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled against a request by plaintiffs in a gender discrimination suit against Wal-Mart who were seeking certification of a class-action suit against the mass merchandise giant. Referring to a 2012 Supreme Court decision about limitations on class-action suits, Breyer ruled that the individual situations of the plaintiffs are too different to be grouped into a single class-action suit.

New York -- Stirling Properties has opened the Mid-City Market in New Orleans, the firm’s largest group-up retail development in the city. A 54,390-sq.-ft Winn-Dixie anchors the 108,763-sq.-ft. shopping center. Stirling estimates that the center will generate annual retail sales of more than $61 million.

Walmart pulled a dietary supplement from its Web site this week following a report by USA Today that called into question the product’s safety and the track record of the supplier.
 
The product in question was a pre-workout supplement called Craze from supplier Matt Cahill who USA Today said has a history of putting risky supplements on the market. Walmart spokeswoman Dianna Gee said the product was pulled to, “allow us time to look further into not only the safety of the product, but also the integrity of the supplier.”