Mass Merchant

New rankings from the Great Places to Work Institute suggests the retail and consumer packaged goods are not good industries for women.

The only retailers to make the institute’s top 100 list of best places for women to work were Build A Bear Workshop (10), The Container Store (27), Wegman’s (54) and L.L. Bean (84). The CPG industry fared even worse with not a single company included in the top 100.

Location: Minnetonka, Minnesota

Size: 155,000 sq. ft.

Owner: 1700 Plymouth LLC (a joint venture, including co-developers Paster Properties LLC and Bader Development LLC)

Key Tenants: Signed lease with Highland Bank, and currently in negotiations with several retailers

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The competition for retailers selling online just got a lot more intense with a new price-match policy from Target just ahead of the prime holiday shopping season.

Beginning Oct. 1, Target will price-match the websites of 29 major retailers in stores and for purchases from their website.

The mandate for retailers to accept chip-enabled, EMV-compliant payment cards starts Oct. 1. But how ready an individual retailer is may depend on what type of retailer they are.

At least that’s according to a new study from The Strawhecker Group (TSG), which shows that a leading 69% of shoe stores and 59% of department stores have EMV-ready POS terminals .

On the lower end of the spectrum, 24% of bookstores and 23% of stationery stores have EMV-ready terminals. Previous TSG research shows that 27% of all retailers will be EMV-ready by Oct. 1.

October will be over in a flash, and with it, all eyes will be on the holiday season, which is measured from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31.

The 2015 retail calendar has several distinctions, as we saw Memorial Day fall on the earliest possible date and Labor Day on the latest possible date. This holiday season, there are 28 days between Thanksgiving (not counting the actual day) and Christmas, which is an average amount for the period separating the two holidays.

The retail real industry has experienced its share of changes over the years, but nothing comes close to the transformation that it is currently undergoing. 

As the industry undergoes what the International Council of Shopping Centers calls one of the “most profound transformations” in its 60-year year history, the association has releases its Envision 2020 report, a collaborative initiative that outlines where the industry will be in five years according to leaders from around the globe. 

Location: Doral, Florida

Size: 600,000 sq. ft.

Owner: The Related Group, Related Development LLC, Shoma Homes

Key Tenants: Fresh Market, CinéBistro-Cobb Theatre, Kings Bowling

Other uses/components: 1,000 new luxury residences

Status: Under construction, set for completion Q4 2016