Mass Merchant

Washington, D.C. -- The retail industry, the nation’s largest private sector employer, added 29,000 jobs in April, indicating that retailers are seeing signs of an improving economy, and as a result, added to their payrolls heading into the summer, according to the National Retail Federation.

Still, the NRF sounded a cautious note.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens posted April sales of $6 billion, an increase of 3.8% as compared to the same month in fiscal 2012. 

Total front-end sales decreased 2.9%, while comparable store front-end sales decreased 4.3%. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 5.9% while basket size increased 1.6%.

New York -- The world’s largest retailers have been scaling back their global expansion activities, particularly in Asia, and turning their attention inward by integrating operations and strengthening their store, Internet and mobile sales channels, according to a new report by Accenture.
    

NEW YORK — The world’s largest retailers have been scaling back their global expansion activities, particularly in Asia, and turning their attention inward by integrating operations and strengthening their store, Internet and mobile sales channels, according to a new report by Accenture. 

Uniqlo has opened its seventh U.S. location to date, in Westchester's Ridge Hill center, in Yonkers, N.Y. The two-level, 24,000-sq.-ft. store is also the retailer's first outdoor lifestyle center location.

For more on Uniqlo, click here. And to see a video Uniqlo did for the opening, click here.

With the breathtaking Twin Peaks of the Colorado Rockies as backdrop, a new project underway in Longmont, Colo., is leveraging both the views and community demand to create a “top drawer outdoor village experience,” said Allen Ginsborg, managing director and principal of NewMark Merrill Mountain States, based in Fort Collins, Colo.

Walmart and Sam’s Club are scheduled to hold the 8th Annual Sustainable Packaging Exposition next week at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers, Ar.

As part of Von Maur's march beyond its core Heartland markets, in 2008 it opened a 130,000-sq.-ft. anchor store at the 1.1 million-sq.-ft. The Greene Town Center, located in Beavercreek, Ohio, and owned by MPI. That store has become the fashion heartbeat of a vibrant mixed-use destination that was originally built by MPI in 2006, expanded in 2008, and slated to expand again in 2014 with another 40,000 sq. ft. of retail.