Mass Merchant

Minneapolis – Best Buy Co Inc. has added service from the Curbside mobile shopping app to several stores in the Bay Area, including San Francisco and San Jose. Curbside enables consumers to purchase items from local retailers and then pick them up outside of local stores with deliveries directly to their cars.

While Kmart has been closing many of its stores as it seeks to restructure the company, the retailer has quietly launched a pilot program to re-brand itself as K-Fresh.

The Chillicothe Gazette reports that the Kmart on North Bridge Street in Chillicothe, Ohio, has scaled back its hours and grocery offerings in preparation for its switch from a 24-hour supercenter to the retail chain's new K-Fresh concept.

Houston -- Baker Katz, an X Team International partner and full-service commercial real estate brokerage firm, announced the completion of its 90,000-sq.-ft. redevelopment located in Port Arthur, Texas.

By Kirsten Early, Partner and Director of Retail, SRSA Commercial Real Estate

New York -- The consumer electronics and furniture sectors of the retail industry can look forward to growth in 2015, while the apparel sector faces a more mixed outlook. That was the message sounded by CIT Commercial Services executives during a roundtable discussion, "Everyone Looks Good in the Black: Retailers in the Economic Rebound,” part of the CIT Executive Insights series.

During the discussion, each CIT executive offered their views on the top trends they see ahead in various sectors of the retail market:

Customer satisfaction with retail is on the decline for the first time in four years, according to a report by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

The report says brick-and-mortar retail show weakening or flat customer satisfaction, while Internet retail is up from a year ago.

Ann Arbor, Mich. - Customer satisfaction with retail is down for the first time in four years. According to a report by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), all brick-and-mortar retail categories show weakening or flat customer satisfaction for the fourth quarter of 2014.  Internet retail satisfaction, however, is up from the same quarter in 2013.

Target Corp. is reportedly localizing the assortments at its smaller-footprint Target Express stores to a high degree.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune reported that since opening its first Target Express in the Dinkytown neighborhood of Minnesota in summer 2014, the discounter has carefully considered local customer demographics when stocking shelves.