Store Systems

Trending Stores: The Frye Company’s location in Denver took top honors as Store of the Year in the 2017 Shop! store design competition. With a design that celebrates the artisan heritage of Frye, one of the country’s oldest footwear companies, the 2,460-sq.-ft. store has a warm and comfortable vibe, with a modern ski-lodge aesthetic. Local references include a massive working fireplace dressed with stone from local quarries, and rugs woven with American Indian motifs.

Fast-fashion e-retailer shines in store debut

British online fast-fashion retailer Missguided makes the leap to physical retail with a high-concept, high-impact store that brings its website to life.

National Realty & Development Corp. landed the first anchor for its new project in Middletown, New Jersey, and it’s a whopper.  

People and corporations are streaming back into America’s downtowns. Are they chain retailers’ best hope for growth?

“City of stars, are you shining just for me?” sings Ryan Gosling in this year’s hit movie musical “La La Land.” “City of stars, there’s so much that I can’t see.”

Want to stay ahead of the competition — or at least keep pace with it? Invest in a tech lab — or an accelerator.

With the pressure to innovate greater than ever, savvy retailers understand they can no longer wait for new solutions and technologies to be proven in the field. That’s why so many of them have invested in tech labs (aka “retail innovation labs”).

Cumberland Farms, a convenience store fixture in New England and central Florida for half a century, once fielded more than 1,000 stores. But, it has slimmed down to 600 locations as it transforms itself from a strip-center and gas station dairy store to a chain of freestanding, modern C-stores providing an array of food service options and gasoline.

What will the stores of the future be like? It’s certainly not a new question, but it’s one that seems to have taken on increased urgency as the shift to digital continues and retailers, some of them under siege from more nimble online competitors, wrestle with how to ensure their stores remain relevant going forward. It’s also a question that is sure to be top of mind for the shopping center owners and brokers who gather at the end of May in Las Vegas for RECon, the annual retail real estate confab.

Joshua Weinkranz