Retail Stores

It’s not April Fool’s Day! Just before the holidays, Lowe's really is introducing two robotic shopping assistants at one of its Orchard Supply Hardware stores in San Jose, Calif. According to a press release from the home improvement retailer, the autonomous robots — called OSHbots — were developed by Fellow Robots, a technology company that specializes in the design and development of autonomous service robots, in partnership with Lowe's own Innovation Labs.

British retailers are investing heavily in the use of digital and mobile in-store to persuade consumers that brick-and-mortar shops aren't just relevant in a digital world but the only place to get the best retail experience in the run-up to Christmas. For example, John Lewis, best known in creative circles for its emotive advertising, is now making digital waves with plans to test a number of new apps designed to deepen customers’ physical in-store experience. First up in early November will be an in-store 3-D printing pilot which, combined with RFID tagging, will help people choosing a new sofa.

The Black Friday fight is on with the announcement Tuesday that Macy's will open stores at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, two hours earlier than last year. Macy's is the first major retailer to announce store hours for the Black Friday weekend, often seen as the kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Last year marked the first time the department store opened its doors at 8 p.m., after opening at midnight in the several years before. The company said the earlier opening is "in response to the significant, sustained customer interest in last year's opening on Thanksgiving." 

Expectations for the holiday season are upbeat, even as retailers grapple with the fallout from slow summer sales and shifting consumer shopping habits. Retail sales in November and December are expected to hit $617 billion, according to National Retail Federation projections. That's a 4 percent increase over

Could this be Amazon.com's Miracle on 34th Street? The online retail giant will take on Macy's and other Herald Square retailers with a physical store of its own for the holidays in New York, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the plans. The Manhattan location would function as a "mini-warehouse" for same-day delivery in New York, product returns and pickups of online orders, according to the report.

Bloomingdale's gave the media a sneak preview on Oct. 7 of its new, three-level, 125,000-square-foot store at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, Calif., a mall smack dab in the birthplace of high tech. When the curtain was pulled back, it revealed something akin to the land of Oz, at least compared to the store that preceded it. The glitzy new store contains a wide array of tech innovations to make shopping easier, and will be a petri dish of sorts to test the new gadgetry to see what early adopters like best.

For some brands, the mall of the future already has arrived. Affordable luxury label Kate Spade earlier this week unveiled shoppable scaffolding in New Jersey's Short Hills Mall, which makes it possible for consumers to interact with and purchase items from the brand before the store even opens. By taking a short personality quiz that's spread out across four touchscreens — the results of which can be shared on social media — the shoppable construction barricades also make it possible for the brand to gain insight into shoppers’ preferences in a particular region.

In the heyday of department stores, fashionable ladies flocked to luxury emporiums like Le Bon Marché, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue and Selfridges. Draped in fur coats, their heads crowned with dainty millinery, they buzzed around merchandise that had never before been available in such a wide assortment under one roof. Department stores were wondrous and bright communal playgrounds, places to socialize and explore the seemingly endless stock of goods, often from far-flung locales. 

Lord & Taylor has figured out how to get the kids back into its department stores: Throw lots of parties and the millennials will flock. The department store is testing out the method in its Manhattan flagship, where it hosted a gathering of about 600 young women last Thursday to

Sears deepening financial troubles have forced insurers and banks to raise the cost of guaranteeing payment to vendors, rattling the retailer's supply chain as the company heads into the key holiday season. The move by these financial intermediaries — an opaque but vital quarter of the retail business where makers of goods ranging from apparel to TVs seek to insure they get paid — comes in the wake of unusual steps Sears has taken to raise cash for operations. In the past three weeks, the retailer twice has turned to its CEO Eddie Lampert's hedge fund for a cash infusion.