Store Systems

Atlanta -- PGA Tour Superstores announced three new store openings in 2014 and an ambitious growth strategy that will more than double its current retail footprint,  adding one million square feet of new golf retail space over the next five years.

As part of its growth plan, the mega-golf retailer will open new interactive retail experience stores this fall in Orlando, Florida; North Scottsdale, Arizona; and Southlake, Texas.

Orlando, Fla. -- Checkpoint Systems Inc. is releasing its new Zephyr 2 RFID label, which is certified by the University of Arkansas’ ARC Center for item-level tagging of all apparel categories in the U.S. and Europe. The Zephyr 2 RFID label design has an integrated UCode 7 chip from NXP Semiconductors, and comes with optimal read/write sensitivity for accurate counting and quicker encoding.  

New York -- Meijer is testing an automated system that speeds up the checkout process at its store in Jenison, Mich. The system, from NCR, automatically scans merchandise. It became available customers on April 3, according to MichiganLive.

As shoppers place merchandise on a conveyor belt, the items are scanned, and then sent to one of three collection areas, where customers bag them.

Cambridge, Mass. – Retail visual merchandising solution provider RBM Technologies has named E.Y. Snowden its new president and CEO. Snowden was previously CEO of Boston Communications Group and president of APC/Sprint Spectrum.

In addition, RBM has closed a $9.5 million round of growth equity financing led by Spring Lake Equity Partners. RBM plans to use the financing to enhance its products and enter the international mobile market and new retail verticals.

Mountain View, Calif. -- Coupons.com Inc. has released updates to the Coupons.com website and the Coupons.com mobile apps with a service that lets consumers add coupons directly to payment cards. Using the Coupons.com website or Coupons.com mobile apps for iOS and Android, shoppers can add digital coupons to their credit or debit cards from Visa, MasterCard or American Express for automatic redemption at checkout.

By Ken Nisch, JGA

Meijer has selected U.S. Vision as its exclusive vision center in its stores moving forward in an effort to enhance its retail healthcare services across the Midwest.

U.S. Vision, a separately owned and operated company based in Glendora, N.J., is currently a tenant in 50 Meijer stores in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, and has plans to open 19 more vision centers in Meijer stores this year. All of its vision centers will be renamed "Meijer Optical" by the end of the month.

The recent introduction of Retail Site Intelligence (RSI), a store technology platform based on the ZigBee wireless standard and collaboratively released by Kroger, EInfochips and Wincor-Nixdor, reinforces the coming explosion of sensing technologies in retail.