- Mark Levin Signs Multi-year Deal with ABC, Expands Show to 3 Hours
- Consumerist.com Adopted by Old-School Consumers Union, Stops Selling Ads
- For Auto Industry, 2009 Holds Even Tighter Ad Budgets
- User-Generated Magazine Publisher 8020 Media Shuts Doors
- Out-of-Home, Fueled by Digital, to Weather Recession Well
- Clear Channel Swaps Cincy Stations for Five in Green Bay
- Consumers Swarm to Discounters for Grocery Items, Don’t Switch Back
- Wikimedia Raises $6.2M to Keep Wikipedia Afloat
- Conde Nast’s Jan. Ad Pages Slip More than Most
- Aegis Faces Possible Sale or Spin-off of Non-core Businesses
- Top US Cities for Charitable Givers, by Category
- Online Fitness, Video Game Spending Outperforms Brick-And-Mortar
- RIM Must Fix Glitches, Boost Satisfaction To Hold Off iPhone
- LCD TV Revenue to Fall YoY for First Time Ever
- Top 10 Broadcast Media Websites - November 2008
- Top 10 Entertainment Online Advertisers by Image-Based Impressions - November 2008
- Top 10 Sports Websites - November 2008
- Eight in 10 Online Holiday Shoppers Read Web Reviews
- Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index: Merry Outlook for Some, but Not Others
- Firefox Share Tops 20% in November
Store Location & Real Estate
Mall Owners Seek to Escape Debt
It was a bad day for mall owners: On Monday, Developers Diversified Realty Corp.—owner and manager of more than 700 shopping centers—failed to seal a deal that would sell 13 assets to an institutional investor for $890 million, Reuters reports.
Also on Monday, General Growth Properties announced that it had not yet reached an agreement to further extend the maturity date on $900 million of...
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Kohl’s, Forever 21 Snap Up Mervyn’s Stores in Open Auction
On Thursday Mervyn’s auctioned off its US store leases. Kohl’s and Forever 21 prevailed, jointly acquiring 46 locations for about $6.25 million.
Upon approval from the court overseeing Mervyn’s bankruptcy proceedings, which began in July, Kohl’s will take control of 31 of the locations and Forever 21 will assume 15 of them.
Forever 21, a youth-lifestyle retailer, was reportedly set to bid on...
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Office Depot to Shutter 112 Stores
Office Depot, after reporting a $7 million net loss on declining sales in the third quarter, said it would close 112 underperforming stores in the next three months and cut planned openings, writes the Wall Street Journal.
The closings will occur throughout North America: 45 locations in the Central US, 40 in the Northeast and Canada, 19 in the West, and 8 in the South—leaving the total store...
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Retailers Ponder Store Openings in Up-and-Coming ‘Rural Cities’
As people move to rural, low-density areas, seeking more space and a more reasonable cost of living, retailers are starting to follow, reports the Longview (Texas) News-Journal.
Towns like Henderson in Eastern Texas are growing, thanks to booming oil and natural gas fields, blossoming subdivisions, and improved access to major highways. Retirees and younger couples arrive from larger cities,...
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No. 4 UK Supermarket Chain Expands
The Morrison supermarket chain—the smallest of the four main UK grocery companies—is putting 403 million pounds sterling ($587 million) toward store and warehouse expansion, Bloomberg reports.
The company’s first purchase of 38 stores from Co-operative Group will add 500,000 square feet of store space, or nearly 5% of Morrison’s total, at a cost of 223.1 million pounds, or $325 million. The...
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Economy Shakes the Ground Retailers Stand On
With declining retail sales and traffic, retail is in a sorry state heading into the holiday season—and mall owners are paying the price, writes the Los Angeles Times.
Retail sales fell 2.8% in October and store/mall traffic fell off an average of nearly 10% each day during the month, according to ShopperTrak.
Recent bankruptcies and store closings among big retailers like Mervyns, Linens ‘n...
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Burberry 1H Net Rises, Admits 2H Will Be a Toughie
Strong sales of Burberry’s luxury handbags edged up sales in the first half of the year (to Sept. 30), the company said - but added that it too will be negatively affected by the tough economic environment, reports The Guardian.
The UK fashion house - known for its camel, red, and black checkered pattern - has had profit margins fall, particularly in the US, where a higher proportion of sales is...
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Circuit City Bankruptcy Sends Landlords Reeling
Circuit City’s bankruptcy filing is causing concern among US shopping center and mall property owners as they face the prospect of every Circuit City store turning into vacant space, Reuters reports.
Fortunately for them, the threat is not terribly immediate. The No. 2 consumer electronic retailer will continue to operate through the rest of the year, thanks to $1.1 billion of...
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Data Drill Down: Circuit City’s Store Closings Focus on Specific Markets
On November 3rd Circuit City confirmed it would close 155 stores this week. Over the weekend, hundreds of jobs were said to be shed at the chain’s headquarters, according to the Richmond-Times Dispatch. The New York Stock Exchange also notified Circuit City that it would face delisting if its stock price didn’t come above $1 per share.
In light of the data reported in its yearly 2007 and 2008...
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Americans Take Stock in Dollar Stores
Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott may have proclaimed the present as the “time for Wal-Mart,” but ultra-discounters like Dollar Tree, 99 Cents Only, and Family Dollar Stores are outperforming even America’s biggest and competitively priced retail outlet.
Dollar stores target a different customer from Wal-Mart’s, however. Family Dollar says its typical customer is a woman, in her mid-40s and the head of her...
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