Retail

The Federal Trade Commission has granted Kroger and Harris Teeter Supermarkets early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 with respect to the pending merger transaction between the two companies.
 
The early termination of the HSR waiting period satisfies one of the conditions to the closing of the pending merger, which remains subject to other customary closing conditions. Both companies expect the transaction to be completed before the end of January.

Hearts On Fire is showing off its new store design at the King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pa. The location is part of Hearts On Fire's global expansion plan, and is designed to transform the way consumers relate to and buy fine diamond jewelry in malls nationwide.

ShopKeep POS has launched a handheld point of sale device that will use Griffin Olli hardware with the ShopKeep POS app. Called ShopKeep Mobile, it is designed for the iPod touch and features an encrypted credit card swiper and high-speed laser barcode scanner to ring up sales right from the showroom floor.

ShopKeep Mobile also comes with all the functionality of the ShopKeep POS app, including: a full suite of reports, inventory management, employee timekeeping, customer database, email receipts, and support for ticket and receipt printers.

New York --- Brookshire Brothers, based in Lufkin, Texas, has entered into an agreement to David's Supermarkets, a 25-store chain based in North Central Texas. Terms were not disclosed.

"We feel like these family-owned stores align with our core value that we are a celebration of family and community," stated Jerry Johnson, president and CEO of Brookshire Brothers. 

Brookshire Brothers operates 123 outlets including grocery stores, convenience stores, free standing pharmacy, tobacco and petro locations.

As always, the NRF Conference & Exposition went by in a blur, but looking back on three jam-packed days of industry insight and networking, a few trends kept coming up again and again. Seamless retail, full mobilization of customers and employees, and item-level RFID tagging stood out as topics of interest among exhibitors and attendees. Following are a few thoughts about each of these trends that will help shape the direction of retail in the year ahead.

Seamless Retailing – Moving Beyond Omni-channel

Tucson, Ariz. — Lee & Associates Arizona has negotiated the $24.8 million sale of the River Center, a 117,563-sq.-ft. shopping center anchored by Whole Foods and Petco. Located on East River Road in the Catalina Foothills of northeastern Tucson, the center posted a cap rate of 5.5%.

Lee & Associates Arizona represented the buyer, Global Retail Investors LLC, a subsidiary of First Washington Realty of Bethesda, Md., and the seller, River Center Canada.

River Center was constructed in 1986 and remodeled in 1997 and 2013.

City of Commerce, Calif. — 99¢ Only Stores will open a new 20,000-sq.-ft. Las Vegas location on Jan. 23. The new store will feature a perishable food department, with produce, dairy and frozen foods.

The new store will kick off its grand opening celebration by selling Westinghouse 40-in. flat-screen TVs for only 99 cents to the first nine customers in line. In addition, anyone in line by 7:45 a.m. will receive a raffle ticket for a chance to win the tenth Westinghouse 40-in. flat-screen TV.

Framingham, Mass. – Unions representing employees of the U.S. Postal Service are reportedly threatening protests in response to the opening of new Postal Service retail centers in dozens of Staples stores. The unions say that the centers, which are staffed by Staples employees, unfairly replace unionized workers with lower-paid, non-union Staples workers and may lead to expansion of the centers to more Staples stores, affecting union jobs at nearby post offices.