Store Systems

Online shopping is expected to reach record levels this holiday season, with some reports suggesting it may even match — for the first time ever — physical store spending.     

Modell’s Sporting Goods is opening a flagship on the site of a former rival.   Modell’s will open a two-level, 20,000-sq.-ft. store on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in a site formerly occupied by Sports Authority. The opening is slated for mid-November.    The store will become Modell’s flagship store in Manhattan, said William Rudin, CEO of property manager Rudin Management Company, in a release.  

Five grocery tech experts chimed in on the recent report that Amazon is planning a major move into the brick-and-mortar grocery store space, and see the potential for up to 2,000 branded grocery stores over the next 10 years.   

Canadian retailer Arc'teryx has opened a stylish pop-up dedicated to its Veilance outerwear menswear collection.     Arc'teryx partnered with New York-based design firm Snarkitecture on the temporary store, located in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, which will be open until January 8, 2017.   

REI has opened it largest location on the East Coast, a 51,000-sq.ft. flagship in Washington, D.C.   The store is designed to offer members of the outdoor community a place to meet and plan adventures — and shop for outdoor gear. It includes such features as a 1,052-sq.-ft. cafe, outdoor courtyard with a fire pit and tables, and a community space that offers a robust schedule of free and low-cost classes in-store classes for cycling, paddling, fitness, hiking and camping, climbing, snow sports, photography and wilderness medicine.

Walmart is testing new technology that could revolutionize the way customers pick up purchases they ordered online.     The discounter has installed a giant machine in a store in Bentonville, Ark., close to its headquarters, that automatically distributes online orders to users of Walmart's  buy-online-pickup-in-store service, reported Business Insider.   The machine is located directly inside the store's entrance.   

Knowing frazzled customers are in search of overall value, Walmart is emphasizing customer service this holiday season.   

The nation’s largest online retailer has big plans for brick-and-mortar expansion.