News

Brick-and-mortar stores are in transition from being viewed as a relic of the 20th century to being understood as the linchpin of 21st century omnichannel retailing.

Downtown LA’s South Park will emerge as a new retail district

It’s rare enough for any developer — or group of developers and brokers — to plan an entirely new retail district almost literally from the ground up. It’s utterly unique to do so in one of the largest cities in the world.

Yet, that’s exactly what’s happening in Downtown Los Angeles’ South Park neighborhood.

Apple will open its highly anticipated new campus in April. Dubbed Apple Park, the site is located on a 175-acre site in Cupertino, Calif.

The heart of the campus is a futuristic, ring-shaped, 2.8 million-sq.-ft. headquarters building that’s clad entirely in panels of curved glass. Designed in collaboration with Foster + Partners, Apple Park is powered by 100% renewable energy. With 17 megawatts of rooftop solar, the campus will run one of the largest on-site solar energy installations in the world.

Los Angeles - True Religion has expanded its partnership with Epicor to support omnichannel and digital innovation initiatives. The specialty apparel retailer has selected modules including the Epicor QuantiSense Retail Business Intelligence solution, and the Epicor ShopVisible cloud retail order management solution.

The famous poetic line “water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink” may hold more truth than most retailers realize.

“Less than 1% of water is drinkable and readily available, and less than 1% of that is surface water,” Jerry Yudelson, president, Green Building Initiative, told SPECS attendees.

Jacksonville, Fla. - Bi-Lo Holdings, parent company of Bi-Lo, Harveys and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, is launching a new smartphone app and improved website for each banner that now delivers personalized digital coupons based on each customer’s shopping habits. Bi-Lo is partnering with digital coupon provider Coupons.com to deliver the personalized coupons.

Additional features of the new mobile app and enhanced website include:

Our cover story this month is about one of my favorite topics: hot retail concepts. It’s a subject that, to my mind, never goes out of style because it speaks as much to the essence of retail in today’s omnichannel age as it did in the purely physical one.

New concepts remain the lifeblood of retailing, and it’s always exciting to recognize and call attention to them. And I’m happy to report that the industry seems to be particularly rich in new formats these days.

Camp Hill, Pa. – Same-store sales increased 3% in April 2015, compared to the same month a year earlier. April front-end same-store sales, which were negatively impacted by 0.9% due to a shift in the timing of Easter, decreased 0.5%.

Pharmacy same-store sales, which included an approximate 1.45% negative impact from new generic introductions, increased 4.6%. Prescription count at comparable stores increased 1.8% from the prior-year period.