Sales & Marketing

Business is booming in the fast-growing business of medical and recreational cannabis. And the shops that specialize in the trade are taking their game up more than a few notches.      In July, The Clinic, which operates some six stores in the Denver area and is expanding into other states, opened a flagship that shows just how much the industry has evolved from the sterile, sparsely decorated storefronts of just a couple years back.       

Macy’s is expanding its off-price concept, Macy’s Backstage, in a pop-up format.   In a test, the department store retailer is placing Backstage pop-ups in 45 existing Macy's stores in time for the holiday shopping season, the Cincinnati Business Journal reported.  

The Mall at Prince Georges in suburban Washington, D.C. will welcome a 16,000-sq.-ft. DSW location and an 11,000-sq.-ft. ULTA in second quarter 2017. The signings are part of PREIT’s ongoing strategic plan to re-outfit its centers with “in-demand” retailers.   “The property has just begun its transformation into an elevated, vibrant shopping and dining destination commensurate with the development that has occurred in the surrounding area,” said Joseph F. Coradino, CEO of PREIT.  

Butler Enterprises has named a Gainesville insider to promote and market its Neighborhoods at Butler project in that Florida college town.   The complex’s new director of marketing, Mary Reichardt, arrives at Butler from the Visit Gainseville-Alachua County Tourism Development Office, where she served as marketing chief. There, she created the county’s first brand strategy to establish awareness across the U.S. and in Europe.   

With some 2,975 team members in its 123 company-owned restaurants and support center, Fazoli’s, the nation’s largest fast-casual Italian restaurant chain, is addressing the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule head on. CSA spoke with Carl Howard, president and CEO of Fazoli’s, about the company’s strategy regarding the new regulations, scheduled to take effect December 1.   How do you think the new overtime rule will impact your workplace?

Beleaguered American Apparel has filed its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in just a little over a year. But this time around its future as a retailer looks even more uncertain.  

Consumers in more cities will soon be able to turn to the nation’s largest e-commerce retailer to find help for home chores and services.   Amazon said it is expanding Amazon Home Services into 20 new metropolitan areas across the country, including Indianapolis; Las Vegas; San Antonio, Texas; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Cleveland, Ohio; Trenton, N.J., and more. Launched in 2015, the service now includes providers from almost 60 professions offering more than 1,200 unique services.  

Kenneth Cole is closing all its stores in outlet centers.   The company plans to shutter its 63 outlet stores within the next six months, Bloomberg reported. The move will leave the brand with two brick-and-mortar stores, both full priced, with one in downtown Manhattan and the other in Arlington, Va.