Store Systems

PetSmart was busy opening stores during its first quarter.   The retailer opened 18 new stores in the U.S. and Canada in its fiscal quarter ending May 1, 2017. PetSmart opened 70 net new stores in 2016 and expects to open more than this number in fiscal year 2017.     

Famous Footwear wants to get merchandise into its shoppers’ hands faster.   By rolling out an in-store pickup service chainwide, Famous Footwear’s online shoppers now have the option of picking up their orders in more than 1,000 locations. To encourage shoppers to try the service, the retailer is offering customers that shop between July 7 through July 11, a $5 discount off of one order containing an in-store pickup item.  

Amazon’s newest service is looking to give Best Buy a run for its money.   In a move designed to rival Best Buy’s Geek Squad installation and repair team, the online giant is quietly creating its own fleet of gadget experts, according to ReCode.  

A warehouse club chain is making it easier for business customers to receive their online orders.   Sam’s Club is testing a business delivery program in Dallas. Besides enabling business owners to place orders online, new services offer members a choice in how they receive merchandise.   

Organic Garage has opened an urban-inspired flagship that takes its design cues from the industrial surroundings and city streetscapes of its locale. Located in Toronto’s west-end Junction neighborhood, the 15,000-sq.-ft. grocery store incorporates murals and graffiti, street signs, pavement markings, guardrails, street lights, and building signs. To add to the authenticity, a local graffiti artist painted over brick walls giving a vibrant and urban feel to the space.  

“Ridgmar…has always had a good regional location, and that’s not something to give up on,” Weitzman broker Bob Young told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.     A fixture in the central Texas city since the 1970s, Ridgmar Mall is is replacing shuttered Neiman Marcus and Macy anchors with a SeaQuest Aquarium in an attempt to escape the fate of two other malls that have closed in Tarrant County: North Hills Mall in North Richland Hills and Six Flags Mall in Arlington.  

In ancient Greek mythology, the Amazon were described as a tribe of man-slaying women warriors. Similarly, today’s Amazon is sometimes described as a slayer – of brick-and-mortar stores – blamed for the demise of multiple retailers. So, it’s interesting that the company has offered to pay $13.7 billion for Whole Foods Market and its brick-and-mortar footprint of more than 460 stores.    

Walmart continues to explore new ways to make it easier for customers to pick up goods purchased online.    The discounter is expanding its deployment of a giant self-service kiosk, which it calls a Pickup Tower, that spits out online orders to users of Walmart's buy-online-pickup-in-store service. Walmart debuted the technology last fall, in a store in Bentonville, Ark., close its headquarters.