Mass Merchant

Target Corp. is launching a new brand with HGTV's 'Fixer Upper' stars Chip and Joanna Gaines, and it's doing it just in time for the holidays.   The retailer announced an exclusive multi-year partnership with Magnolia, the home and lifestyle brand founded by the Gaines, to launch a home and lifestyle goods line called Hearth & Hand. It is Magnolia’s first collaboration with a retailer.   

Face-to-face human contact is not necessary for a brand to make a strong connection with consumers.   

One of the nation's best-performing department stores retailers may soon be out of the public arena.    Nordstrom family members are close to selecting Leonard Green & Partners to help fund a buyout of their namesake department store, reported CNBC, which cited people familiar with the matter.  

Walmart is simplifying its U.S. business as it looks to respond more quickly to the accelerating pace of change in the retail industry.   The discounter is consolidating its six divisional groups into four and its 44 U.S. regional groups to 36, reported Bloomberg.   

Target Corp. has kicked off a partnership with BCG Digital Ventures to conduct a 14-week “innovation sprint.” For the project, BCG's experts (including designers, engineers and investors) are working side-by-side with five Target associates to develop new growth concepts and ideas. (The associates are middle managers from across Target's various divisions, reported the Star Tribune.)  

Michael P. Glimcher, who stepped down as the chief executive of WP Glimcher last year, has been named CEO of Starwood Retail Partners. He succeeds Scott Wolstein, who has taken on a new role as senior adviser to the parent company, Starwood Capital Group.  

It only took seven days for Amazon to begin reaping the benefits of its acquisition of Whole Foods Market.  

Many American communities see the closing of a long-successful department store as a tragedy. Town officials of Oak Lawn, Illinois, see it as an opportunity.   “It is a great location and I think its future…can be very, very bright and strong, and so does the owner of the property,” village manager Larry Deetjen said of the shopping center at 95th Street and Pulaski Road in an interview with the Chicago Tribune.