News

New York -- More than half of consumers will spend more for the Halloween holiday than they’ll spend for either Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, according to the 2014 Halloween Happenings Survey by Alliance Data Retail Services, which manages credit card programs.

Some highlights include:

• 67% of consumers buy Halloween candy that they like, in case they want to enjoy a few treats before the tricksters ring the bell.

Covington, La. - Smoothie King Franchises Inc. will roll out the Revel Systems iPad POS solution at 700 stores globally in fall 2014. Smoothie King selected the Revel platform for its scalability and ability to streamline operations.

Virginia Beach, Va. – The Investment Sales Group of Divaris Real Estate Inc. has brokered the sale of Shippensburg Marketplace in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania for $12 million. Divaris represented the seller, ACL Realty Corp., in the transaction; American Realty Capital Properties, Inc. was the purchaser.

Shippensburg Marketplace is a 56,875-sq.-ft., Giant-anchored shopping center. The property was developed in 2002 and was 94% occupied at the time of the sale.

Northbrook, Ill. - Pine Tree Commercial Realty LLC has acquired Riverbend Marketplace, a regional shopping center located in Asheville, North Carolina, in partnership with Wanxiang America Real Estate Group. The 142,617-sq.-ft. shopping center is shadow-anchored by Walmart, anchored by Kohl’s and Petsmart, and features 110,715-sq.-ft. of national best-in-class retailers.

Fort Worth, Texas - Rice Management Company and Trademark Property Company have acquired a three-building, 193,000-sq.-ft. retail property portfolio in Rice Village, today collectively named the Village Arcade. Trademark and Rice plan to completely revitalize the properties by significantly upgrading the merchandising mix, facades and site amenities and considering a rebranding.

Omaha, Neb. - Following a decision to expand into under-served markets across the central U.S., discount department store chain Gordmans Stores has upgraded its legacy IT systems to an Oracle Retail enterprise platform. Working with Oracle Gold partner OLR, Gordmans implemented Oracle Retail solutions including Oracle Retail Merchandising System, Oracle Retail Sales Audit, Oracle Retail Price Management and Oracle Retail Trade Management.

Dusseldorf, Germany - E-Plus Gruppe, a German telecommunications provider with 400 corporate stores, is using OneView Commerce Store to become one of the first European retailers merging its digital and physical stores via OneView’s mobile commerce framework. The key drivers for E-Plus Gruppe’s cross-channel initiatives are increasing store traffic through buy online/ship to store; order at the POS; and return at the POS.

Simon has long been known as one of the pre-eminent players in retail real estate and shopping center management and development. But with the formation of a new venture capital division, Simon Venture Group, and partnership with Plug and Play, a global investor and technology accelerator that specializes in growing tech startups, Simon is looking to take a leading role in retail IT, as well.

By David Dorf, senior director of technology strategy for Oracle Retail

Sears Canada president and CEO Douglas C. Campbell has resigned his spot so he can return to the United States by the end of the calendar year to tend to personal family issues. The board will commence a search for a new CEO immediately.

Campbell intends to continue as the CEO until Sears Canada names a replacement, but no later than January 1, 2015.