Sales & Marketing

Retailers tend to be at their charitable best during key seasonal periods and that’s been the case with Office Depot and back-to-school season for the past 15 years.

Boston – The increasingly crowded digital payment field will soon have a new player. According to Bloomberg, the retailer-backed Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) is preparing to launch a trial of its CurrentC digital payment solution in stores.

CVS is taking steps to expand its offerings in the highly lucrative beauty category with three new collections.

Seattle - Starbucks Corp. is looking to increase its corporate ownership stake. The retailer has authorized the repurchase of an additional 50 million shares of the company's common stock under its ongoing share repurchase program.

This authorization has no expiration date and is in addition to the 11 million shares that remained available for repurchase as of June 28, 2015 under an existing authorization.

Seattle – Everyone from mass merchandisers to dollar stores has been getting into the grocery business in recent years, and the vertical may soon have a new and very large participant.

West Elm plans to open a 10,000-square-foot shop in one of the most up and comng urban centers in the South.

The store will open with West Elm’s fall 2015 product assortment, a suite of complimentary design services and feature crafted goods by nine local artists and makers as part of West Elm’s “Local” initiative. The new store is expected to bring an estimated 25-30 jobs to the Charleston community.

A Food City supermarket in Bristol, Va., has given new meaning to that old merchandising adage, “stack it high and let it fly,” by creating the world’s largest pineapple display.

Houston - Transwestern represented Mod Pizza in five leases totaling approximately 13,662 sq. ft. in the Houston market. Grant Walker, VP, and Chris Reyes, broker associate, who serve as exclusive advisors for Mod Pizza in the Houston market, represented the retailer in the transactions.

Mod will be operating more than 100 stores across the U.S. by the end of 2015 and has plans to open more than 30 additional locations in Houston within the next four to five years.

Mod Pizza’s newest Houston locations include: