Mass Merchant

Target Corp. has a new finance chief and executive VP. Cathy Smith officially joined the discounter on Sept. 1, coming from Express Scripts, the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits manager, where she was also CFO.  

A seasoned retail leader, Smith also held CFO positions at Walmart International, GameStop, and others. Target recently posted a Q&A with Smith on its Bullseye blog. Here are some highlights:

What made you decide to take on this role at Target?

New York -- Amazon is not only expanding its instant-order “Dash” button program, it’s also making the buttons virtually free.

Minneapolis – Target Corp. reportedly wants to become a place where consumers can go and everybody knows your name.

According to USA Today, Target plans to serve liquor in a store slated to open in Chicago in October 2015.

While a number of Target stores sell packaged alcohol products, this marks the first time Target would also serve liquor for customers to consume inside the store. Target has applied for permits to both sell alcohol for take-home purchase and for in-store consumption for the Chicago store.

Newcastle, Wash. -- Retail Properties of America announced that it has closed on the off-market acquisition of Coal Creek Marketplace, a 56,000 sq. ft. grocery-anchored center located in Newcastle, Washington for approximately $17.6 million. The center is currently 95% occupied and anchored by Quality Food Centers, a subsidiary of Kroger.

As Target moves to reimagine the shopping experience for customers who visit its stores, the retailer has applied for two liquor licenses for a future store in Chicago.

USA Today reports that the company has applied for packaged goods and consumption on premises licenses.

The retailer may be trying to follow the lead of Kroger, Duane Reade and other retailers looking to expand their alcoholic offerings, which could pose operational challenges at these stores.

“Now Trending” is an exclusive online series to chainstoreage.com, featuring trending topics that impact the retail real estate landscape.

Online retailer ThinkGeek is teaming up with GameStop on a new concept retail store focused entirely on collectibles.

The first store will open in the Florida Mall in Orlando on Sept. 25.

Amazon.com is reportedly doing some experimental tinkering with the two-day shipping guarantee for its paid Prime loyalty program.