Sales & Marketing

San Antonio’s zoning commission voted has approved a $300 million makeover of the city’s shuttered Lone Star Brewery. Three previous attempts to redevelop the 32-acre site dating back to 1996 never materialized.   The co-project of CBL and Aqualand Development will be a mixed-use property combining retail, hotel, residential, and office space. Cinemark Theaters and Punch Bowl Social — a dining and gaming center with locations in Denver, Austin, and Cleveland — have signed on as the first tenants.  

Kohl’s Corp. reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit amid expense controls that helped make up for lower sales.   The chain reaffirmed its full-year profit forecast.   Kohl’s net income rose 21.7% to $146 million, or 83 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Oct. 29. Excluding items, Kohl's earned 80 cents per share.   Sales decreased 2.3% to $4.33 billion from $4.3 billion in the year-ago period. Same-store sales fell 1.7% during the quarter.

Wayfair is so bullish on virtual reality that it launched its second app — a solution designed to guide shoppers through virtual showrooms.   Available on Daydream, Google’s mobile VR platform, Wayfair’s IdeaSpace app enables consumers to explore a variety of uniquely designed spaces, and shop their favorite finds in an interactive setting. IdeaSpace was built by Wayfair Next, the company’s internal research and development team, using Google’s virtual reality technology.   

Retailers and other employers of minimum-wage earners can expect to see their labor costs go up in four states.    Voters in the states of Colorado, Maine, Washington, and Arizona all approved measures to raise their state’s minimum wage in Tuesday’s election.   The biggest hike will be in Maine, where the minimum hourly pay will increase from $7.50 to $12 by 2020, and later increasing with inflation.    

Bed Bath & Beyond is going local in Brooklyn, New York.   The home décor chain’s upcoming store in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn will include a cafe that will feature local items, brooklynpaper.com reported, along with a coffee bar. The 120,000-sq.-ft. store will also offer cooking classes.     Other features will include a “Born in Brooklyn” department spotlighting items made in the borough as a means of supporting local manufacturers, according to the report.

In a move to spur its digital transformation, Toys “R” Us has appointed Amit Poddar to head up its digital engineering team.   Poddar is joining the toy retailer as senior VP, chief software architect. The addition is the latest strategic move within the company’s massive digital transformation, a project that is focused on integrating technology into every part of the business, and creating a more customer-centric operation.   

Dollar General is planning to unveil a smaller-store concept designed around convenience.   The new format, reportedly to be called DGX,  is due to open in early 2017, with a unit in downtown Nashville, and another in Raleigh, North Carolina.       

Pinterest is launching a new program designed to help brand partners present more relevant advertising messages to Pinners.   Through a partnership with Neustar, Pinterest’s marketing partners now have a solution that leverages the social media platform’s customer-specific information as well as Neustar’s proprietary audiences. The combination of data gives advertisers a standardized view of customer across every marketing channel, and an unprecedented reach among customers.