Mass Merchant

Covington, La. - Stirling Properties and CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. are announcing 12 new tenants coming to Fremaux Town Center in Slidell, Louisiana. Anchored by a 128,000-sq.-ft. Dillard's, the second phase of this development will include approximately 285,000-sq.-ft. of additional retail space, including previously announced tenants Red Robin, Zales, Francesca’s and Aveda.  

Construction is moving along as scheduled with a planned opening of Phase II in October 2015.

Ann Arbor, Mich. - Despite economic indicators that show the recession is over, customers are slightly less satisfied in 2015 than they were the prior year. According to CFI Group's Retail Satisfaction Barometer 2015, the RSB score for 2015 is 79 on a 0-100 scale (with 100 being the highest possible score), a one-point drop from 2014.

Minneapolis – Target Corp. is reportedly testing a solution that automatically recommends sponsored videos to Web users based on the content they are reading. According to Advertising Age, Target is piloting the Kargo Kapsule application, which recommends sponsored videos that relate to the content displayed on a consumer’s Web screen.

Foot Locker has signed a lease for a redesigned flagship store in the heart of Manhattan’s 34th Street corridor.

The new Foot Locker store will be located directly opposite Macy's world flagship store, at the intersection of Broadway, Avenue of the Americas and West 34th Street, where an estimated 100 million pedestrians pass by annually. Foot Locker will consolidate from three floors into 34,200 square feet on a portion of the ground floor and the entire second floor.

Chicago -- Self-service kiosks got a nod from the Millennial generation, as a new survey released by location-based mobile platform Retale showed that 20% of Millennial shoppers don’t like interacting with cashiers at checkout.

The survey examined consumer self-service checkout (SSK) adoption and preferences among brick-and-mortar retailers, focusing on SSK experiences, and evaluating convenience, challenges and desired improvements.

Research highlights include:

Minneapolis – Doug Baker, CEO of environmental technology firm Ecolab, has been named by Target Corp. as lead independent director of the Target board. Baker, who already serves as an independent director for Target, will replace current independent director Jim Johnson, who is retiring from the board in June after almost 20 years.

Beijing, China -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. unveiled plans to countermand slowed growth in China with 115 new stores in the country by 2017 and creating some 30,000 jobs. The announcement adds about 35 new stores to the retailer’s building plans as Wal-Mart previously targeted 480 total stores in China by 2016, up from around 400 now.

CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement that "China is a key strategic market for Walmart. Over the next three years we will increase investment across our diverse business operations in China.”

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon was in Beijing on Wednesday, where he put a finer point on a previously announced international expansion plan that will include a blend of 115 new stores, remodels and select closures in the world’s second largest economy.

McMillon and Walmart Asia CEO Scott Price participated in a press conference in Beijing, where the emphasis was on the retailer’s physical expansion in a market where overall economic rates of growth have been decelerating with little mention of e-commerce.