Store Systems

Salt Lake City - The Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC) and Smith’s Food & Drug are planning a 78,000-sq.-ft.food and drug store in Holladay, Utah. The 57-acre mixed-use Cottonwood development, located eight miles from downtown Salt Lake Cit, will feature upscale shopping, dining, entertainment and offices in a “Town Square” style setting as well as multi-family residences when complete.

By Keith Carpentier, senior business development manager, Tensator
 

Office Depot is kicking off its latest back-to-school campaign — Gotta Get It! — which includes more than 1,000 items for $5 or less in stores and online. The company is also offering a new price-match policy to shoppers year-round to drive traffic to Office Depot and OfficeMax locations.

The Running Specialty Group, an operating segment of the Finish Line, has appointed Scott Goodmon as VP, store operations. Goodmon will lead the group’s nearly 800 employees serving the running community nationwide. He will report directly to Running Specialty Group president Bill Kirkendall.

San Jose, Calif. - EBay and U.K. general merchandise retailer Argos have entered an agreement to extend their offering of Click & Collect services via Argos stores. This extension will enable shoppers to select products from a much wider range of EBay sellers for collection from about 650 Argos stores.

June was a good month for two of the nation’s largest drugstore operators. Walgreens reported sales of $6.3 billion for the month, an increase of 8.9% as compared to the same month in fiscal 2013, while Rite Aid realized a 3.9% same-store sales increase for the four weeks ended June 28.

Total front-end sales at Walgreens increased 1.8% in June compared with the same month in fiscal 2013, while comparable store front-end sales increased 1.3%. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 2% while basket size increased 3.3%.
 

New York -- Warby Parker, the hip online eyewear retailer, has opened its sixth retail location, a 1,050-sq.-ft. store in Dallas.

Hershey’s Chocolate World immerses shoppers in all-things Hershey. The two-level, 13.000-sq.-ft. store, which has a 74-ft. high Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar that visitors can walk through and entrances styled to resemble Hershey’s Kisses, is designed as the ultimate brand experience. Custom chocolate sculptures of the Statue of Liberty, made of almost 800 lbs. of pure Hershey’s Milk Chocolate, and the Empire State Building, made of 1,800 Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars, make idea photo ops.