Store Systems

By Mike Harris, [email protected]

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Office Depot is getting ready to roll out omnichannel initiatives, just in time for the back-to-school season. Beginning July 28, its employees will be equipped with mobile hand-held devices across all stores, which will provide them with tools designed to enhance shoppers’ experience.

Office Depot employees will be able to use the hand-held devices to obtain instant access to extended product information, availability, customer reviews and on-the-spot checkout from anywhere in the store.

Boca Raton, Fla. -- As part of its plan to support a customer-focused omni-channel experience, Office Depot said that, effective July 28, its associates will be enabled with mobile hand-held devices across all stores to provide instant access to extended product information, availability, customer reviews and on-the-spot checkout from anywhere in the store.

Birmingham, Ala. -- Books-A-Million has teamed with On Demand Books to put Espresso Book Machines in BAM’s Portland, Maine, store; a second store is slated for installation at a later date.

FORT WORTH, Texas — RadioShack has unveiled its first branded section of a college bookstore at the University Co-op at the University of Texas at Austin, as part of the retailer’s five-year agreement with NACSCORP, which sports the retailer's new logo.

Fort Worth, Texas -- As part of a previously announced plan to expand into non-traditional channels, RadioShack said its first shop-in-shop college store has opened at the University of Texas at Austin.

Located within the University Co-op bookstore, the RadioShack-branded section features consumer electronics products geared toward college kids. The Top Tech at UT Students' Fingertips RadioShack's retail space consists of a 12-ft. section of wall located on the first floor of the Co-op, and features items such as headphones and Bluetooth speakers.

There has been a recent trend in retail of new dynamic store formats that make the physical store experience more closely mirror the virtual store experience. Examples include Staples “omni-channel” stores that feature kiosks offering access to Staples’ full product inventory and RadioShack’s new concept store in Manhattan that includes interactive product fixtures such as display speakers that customers can test with music from their own personal devices.

Naples, Fla. -- Kite Realty Group Trust has begun work on a $10 million renovation of the 85,497-sq.-ft. Kings Lake Square in Naples, Fla.

The renovation will demolish the center’s Publix anchor and construct a new 45,000-sq.-ft. new Publix. Additional work includes renovated shop facades new sidewalks, a new parking lot, site lighting and landscaping.

Publix will close this month and reopen the new store next spring. All other tenants will remain open during the renovation.