News

When Renaissance at Colony Park opened in Ridgeland, Miss., in 2008, it created a stir not only among the local residents of Ridgeland, Miss., but also within the retailer and shopping center communities as a whole.

The project, developed by Mattiace Properties and H.C. Bailey Cos., pulled together the aesthetic elements of a Main Street and town center format with strategic, traffic-driving retail, entertainment and dining offerings.

NEW YORK — International lifestyle brand Club Monaco is leveraging the power of social media to promote its fashion apparel and accessories. It has launched an interactive fashion lookbook on Tumblr. 

Club Monaco hopes to use the visually driven platform to expand its reach and entice consumers to see and share fashion looks months before they hit the stores. 

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Preliminary results from the Safeway annual stockholder’s meeting show that a majority of stockholders followed board of directors recommendations in electing each of the eight directors with a majority of at least 73%. Stockholders also approved the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as Safeway’s independent accounting firm for fiscal 2013.

TOLEDO, Ohio — Hickory Farms, a leading provider of specialty foods and holiday food gifts, has made changes to its executive team.

The company has promoted VP of brand marketing Michael Holton to CMO. VP of supply chain Joe Loch has been promoted to VP of franchise and retail sales. Director of logistics Ty Hanline has been promoted to VP of supply chain. The company has also hired Davenport, Hanf & Company executive Joe Herman to be its interim CFO.

ARMONK, N.Y. -- Consumers shopping online for Mother’s Day gifts was up 15%, spurred by mobile commerce growth of 23% over 2012, according to IBM’s Digital Analytics Benchmark, a cloud-based analysis of the online retail market.

ST. LOUIS — SpongeBob and Patrick are heading to Build-A-Bear Workshop thanks to an agreement between the retailer and Nickelodeon. Beginning Friday, May 17, customers will be able to make their own SpongeBob and Patrick dolls at Build-A-Bear Workshop stores throughout North America and on the retailer’s e-commerce site for $23 apiece.  

SpongeBob’s Bikini Bottom friends Sandy Cheeks and Gary the Snail will also be available as pre-stuffed minis for $10 each.

RadioShack is courting the college market and has entered into a five-year agreement with NACSCORP, a subsidiary of the National Association of College Stores.

Under the agreement, the retailer will offer an assortment of consumer electronics and accessories to the nearly 4,000 college store customers NACSCORP currently serves.

SEATTLE — Blue Nile, an online retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry, has appointed former Aeropostale co-CEO Mindy Meads to its board of directors. 

Meads has 35 years of experience in the global apparel industry. She currently serves on two public boards — Wet Seal, a specialty teen brand, and Mela Sciences, a bio tech company. In these roles, she provides strategic counsel focused on growth and the use of multichannel business strategies.