Retail

City of Commerce, Calif. — 99 Cents Only Stores will open a 15,635-sq.-ft. store in Garden Grove, Calif., on Sept. 19.

As part of the grand opening, the first nine customers may buy a 40-inch Westinghouse flat-screen TV for 99 cents. The chain currently operates 326 across the southwest.
 

Gap will launch a fall global marketing campaign called “Back to Blue,” featuring two videos with musicians Dhani Harrison and Alexa Ray Joel, which consumers can watch on TV, desktops and smartphones and tablets.

Saratoga, Calif. — Fuddruckers is expanding its footprint in Southern California through a new franchise development partnership with Keilah LLC.

The partnership will open ten new Fuddruckers over the next several years. The first is slated to debut by early 2015.

NEW YORK — Saks has announced that upon completion of its acquisition by Hudson’s Bay Company Stephen I. Sadove, chairman and CEO of Saks, and Ronald L. Frasch, president and chief merchant of Saks, will be leaving the company.

Mokena, Ill. — Micoley.com’s Sept. 28 property auction will offer a restaurant and banquet facility in Mokena, Ill. The two-story restaurant spans 14,754 sq. ft. The site includes 162 parking spaces. Zoning allows other kinds of commercial activity.

The property has an opening bid of $995,000, substantially lower than the initial asking price of $1,795,000. Offers are expected during the lead up to the auction. Properties such as this frequently sell ahead of their auction date.

Technology is advancing to the degree where almost any digital consumer touchpoint has the potential to become a very real storefront. Video games, blog and social media postings, apps, and virtually any other digital environment that directly engages consumers either currently is or soon will be able to serve as a fully functioning storefront where transactions can be executed.

Have you heard of Silicon Beach? No, it isn’t an offshoot of Silicon Valley. It is a phenomenon emerging in West Los Angeles, home of The Promenade at Howard Hughes Center, a mixed-use development with office, residential, hotel, retail, restaurant and entertainment offerings.

Silicon Beach has taken its name from Silicon Valley — both are notable for the number of creative business start-ups.

Pennsauken, N.J. – Becker’s School Supplies has relaunched its e-commerce site using the WebLinc platform.

The WebLinc platform allows Becker’s to offer a branded user experience and also provides back-end merchandising and management tools. Since rolling out its new site, Becker’s has experienced a 120% jump in revenue compared to the same period last year, and saw transaction volume increase by 81% as a result of improved online performance.