Retail

Chino Hills, Calif. — The Shoppes at Chino Hills, a 380,000-sq.-ft. community and lifestyle center in Chino Hills, Calif., has announced leases with five new retailers.

DB Shoes has opened its first Inland Empire store in a 6,100-sq.-ft. space next to Aeropostale.

Another Inland Empire first is The Kickin’ Crab, set to open in the spring of 2014.

Originally an online business, Kid’s Wonderland recently opened its first brick-and-mortar retail location at Chino Hills.

New York -- Changes in foreign exchange rates had a negative impact on Costco’s comparable store sales for the fourth quarter ended Sept. 1, but the wholesaler still reported increases in both its U.S. and international markets. 

The company’s comparable sales for the quarter increased 5%. U.S. comparable store sales increased 5% for the quarter, while international comparable store sales increased 4%. 

Amazon has introduced a new service that streamlines how customers transact with online merchants. Login and Pay with Amazon allows customers of participating companies to go from browsing to buying in just a few clicks using their Amazon account information.

Walmart and its joint venture partner in India, Bharti Enterprises, are parting ways after six years, the companies announced.

Plans call for Walmart to acquire Bharti’s 50% stake in their joint venture begun in 2007 to operate cash and carry wholesale stores branded as Best Price Modern Wholesale. At the time, that was the only sector of retail where Indian law allowed for foreign direct investment. The first Best Price store opened in 2009 and today there are 20 units spread throughout India.

Fort Worth, Texas — Trademark Property Co. has announced the appointment of Daniel Goldware as VP of leasing. Goldware will initially work on Waterside, Trademark’s new 63-acre master planned, mixed-use development under construction in Fort Worth, as well as Victory Park in downtown Dallas.

Goldware comes to Trademark from Weingarten Realty Investors where he served as a leasing executive in both Dallas and Houston for the past seven years.

San Bruno, Calif. -- Over 35% of respondents received no formal training, and 28% were asked to read a manual or a handbook, according to a recent study of retail store associates by Qumu, a provider of secure multimedia content management and delivery solutions. The survey also revealed that retail employees are looking for improved executive communication to provide them with a greater understanding of company strategy (57%), more connectedness to the company community (47%), and understanding of activity in other stores (46%).

RadioShack unveiled a store remodeled to its new high-touch format, in Manhattan, with an additional Big Apple location set to open on Oct. 12. The format incorporates interactive areas designed to help shoppers improve their technology profile. The chain premiered the design in July, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Features of RadioShack’s updated design include: 

Thorofare, N.J. -- Checkpoint Systems announced that Family Dollar Stores has entered into a multi-year agreement that includes the deployment of Checkpoint's electronic article surveillance solutions in all of its existing and future stores.

The rollout in the chain's existing 7,900 stores is expected to be completed by December 2014.