News

Smithfield Properties has sold five properties in Chicago to the Acadia Realty Trust for $150 million, reported the deal’s broker, Mid-America Real Estate Corp.   The properties were:   • North Kingsbury Center on the corner of North Avenue and North Kingsbury Street, with tenants including Old Navy, Pier 1 Imports, Blick Art Materials, and Modani Furniture.  

Walmart Canada is extending its ban on accepting Visa credit cards.   The discounter said it will stop accepting Visa credit cards at all 16 of its stores in Canada’s Manitoba province starting on Oct. 24.   

Domino’s customers can now place their orders without ever talking to a human.   Starting Sept. 15, Domino’s customers with a “pizza profile” on the chain’s website can place orders via bot-based Facebook Messenger. The pizza chain's in-house team, which created zero-click ordering via Amazon Echo and Apple Watch, also developed Domino's new ordering bot.  

Ikea continues to break the mold when it comes to furniture retailing.   In a move that supports its transition from a traditional brick-and-mortar retailer to a multichannel player, Ikea recently opened the doors of its third “click-and-collect” location in England, in the city of Birmingham.   

In case you missed it, a national Higher Ground Moral Day of Action took place Monday at 30 state capitols across the country and in Washington, D.C. An organization of national and local progressive faith leaders called Moral Revival planned the events to deliver their "Higher Ground Moral Declaration." They called on politicians at all levels “to move away from extremist politics and policies that benefit the few and move toward policies and laws that are just and fair and guarantee a better life for the majority of the people.”

Brick-and-mortar retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy are not only surviving online, but are thriving due to their sizable physical assets and digital investments.   That’s one of the main findings of a new report by Moody's Investors Service, which says that while Amazon keeps raising the stakes online and has a decade-plus advantage over other retailers in e-commerce, it still faces intense competition from the likes of Walmart and Best Buy, who are raising the bar online for other physical merchants.   

Retail sales fell more than expected in August after a strong June and a relatively flat July.   The National Retail Federation said that retail sales, excluding automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants, were down 0.3% over July. On a year-over-year basis, however, NRF calculates that retail sales increased 4.1%.    The slowdown in August was broad-based and, notably, there was a drop-off in non-store sales, NRF noted. Clothing sales increased 0.7% in August, driven by back-to-school shopping.

Dollar General announced a major hiring initiative to support its continued expansion.   The discounter said that within the next month it intends to hire 10,000 new employees to support planned store openings and fill current vacancies. The chain will hold approximately 600 localized hiring events through September. It is looking to hire both full-time and part-time positions, including store managers, assistant store managers, lead sales associates and store associates.