Insights

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is questioning whether to use a broader definition of the term “joint employer,” a move that could bring sweeping changes to the restaurant and retail/wholesale franchisor model. Whether a large fast-food company exhibited more control than it should have over its franchisees was the most recent catalyst for the proposed change, but several earlier cases have challenged the more than 30-year-old standard for determining joint employment.

Today’s consumer is driven by an “I want it now” mentality, yet retailers are still not prepared to deliver. Reducing the time it takes an order to arrive at a customer’s home is every retailer’s objective, but while quicker fulfillment makes customers happy, it comes at a cost.

Silicon Valley’s Winchester House confounds visitors from around the world. An eccentric heiress spent decades adding endless rooms and hallways, doors that lead to nowhere, and random structural additions — turning a home into an inscrutable, imposing and meandering oddity.

A red-hot real estate market and sky-high property values have some retailers, including Macy’s and more recently, McDonalds, feeling the pressure to cash in on the value of their real estate assets. How? By spinning off store properties and/or land assets into a REIT and entering into a lease-back deal.

Today’s customers are firmly in charge of the buying process. The Internet allows them to research products and prices at the click of a button, and in most cases, they are better informed about what’s available in the marketplace than the associates in brick-and-mortar stores. And, the retail environment is more crowded – and less personalized – than ever before.

“Now Trending” is an exclusive online series to chainstoreage.com, featuring trending topics that impact the retail real estate landscape.

At a time when the growing influence of millennials and the ongoing development, redevelopment and revitalization of urban communities continue to shape the commercial development landscape, the changes taking place in the hotel and multi-family sectors reflect many of those same demographic and development trends.

The company, the PGA Tour’s exclusive off-course/off-airport retail partner, has built a business dedicated to providing golf enthusiasts of all levels access to the same technology and expertise that card-carrying Tour pros enjoy. Stores are staffed with teaching professionals and have multiple state-of-the-art swing simulators, practice hitting bays, and large putting greens. There is also an in-house club-making and repair facility.   

The more we learn about real-world customer experiences, the more we see that we've been horribly naive about the role that mobile devices play in shoppers' lives.