Retail

To some folks, he’s an innovator, a genius who has fundamentally transformed the retail equation. To others, he’s a bully. And now Jeff Bezos has a new label: the world’s best-performing CEO.

The designation comes way of the Harvard Business Review’s 2014 ranking of the 100 best-performing CEOs. The list offers the only ranking of global CEOs’ performances over their entire tenure.

Atlanta -- Although 83% of consumers say most of their shopping takes place in-store, they still report a variety of disconnects between the in-store and online retail experience. According to a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers from electronic shelf label (ESL) technology vendor DisplayData, 44% of U.S. consumers think retailers offer different prices online and offline.  

New York City -- SL Green Realty Corp. announced it has acquired the retail property located at 102 Greene Street for $32.25 million. The transaction marks the continued growth of the company’s prime retail property portfolio, which already includes several other assets in Manhattan’s SoHo retail district.   

Anyone planning to attend the NRF Convention Jan. 11-14, 2015, should consider arriving one day early to attend another event that is chock-full of information and industry expertise: SuperSaturday. Each year, RetailROI independently offers SuperSaturday, a one-day event held the Saturday before the official Sunday kickoff to the NRF Convention.

This year, SuperSaturday falls on Jan. 10. Held at the PwC Auditorium in Manhattan from 8 a.m.

New York --  Foot Locker Inc. announced that, as part of a planned succession process, Ken Hicks, 61, intends to retire as president and CEO of the company on Dec. 1, 2014. Hicks, a highly-regarded retail veteran who has been wooed by other retailers for the top spot, will be succeeded as president and CEO by COO Richard (Dick) A. Johnson, 56, who has been with Foot Locker for almost two decades.  

Kalamazoo, Mich. -- Mid-America Real Estate Corporation’s Investment Sales team recently brokered the sale of Maple Hill Mall in Kalamazoo, Mich. The 283,551-sq.-ft. center was purchased from Kimco Realty Corp. by Whitehouse, Ohio-based Devonshire REIT.  

Befitting its Silicon Valley locale, Bloomingdale’s new 125,000-sq.-ft. outpost in Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto, California, is outfitted with a wide array of tech flourishes to make shopping easier.

Boston -- The current use of social media data by retailers for merchandise planning is limited, with only 39% using it for product development and only 35% using it for promotional planning.