Retail Stores

Retail sales climbed in July, led by Gap and L Brands, in what is typically a slow, clearance-driven month for retailers ahead of the back-to-school season. Costco Wholesale, however, underperformed, marking the first time in five months that the warehouse club chain's sales have increased less than expected. The company said foreign currencies had a

America's supercenters are dying a slow death. Huge big-box stores like Wal-Mart Supercenters and Target are being phased out in favor of "some combination of value and convenience," Goldman Sachs recently wrote. "Just about every major trend we're following right now bodes poorly for power center retail," Doug Stephens, founder of

After experimenting with "shop in shops" at Henri Bendel in New York and The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas over the past nine months, online dress and accessories rental company Rent the Runway is now planning to open its first freestanding store. The 1,700-square-foot space will

Brick-and-mortar stores are a fundamental component to an omnichannel retail brand's success. While big-box retailers are making moves to scale back their physical footprint, I don't think that means retailers should be rushing back to e-commerce-only models. Many "online only" retailers have moved offline to not only offer an extension of their online storefront, but also create a better customer experience.

Looking ahead 25 years, the majority of the country's spending power will rest in the hands of millennials. Just as the Great Depression shaped the spending habits of Americans who grew up during that era, experts predict members of this new-edition, penny-pinching generation will continue to be driven by deals. As a result, Byron Carlock, PwC's U.S. real estate practice leader, said retailers who offer a good value and cater to millennials’ tendency to live a "throwaway" lifestyle — including a penchant for fast, cheap fashion and low-price furniture they can throw away when they move — will thrive.

For many of the millions of workers who toil in the nation's shops, malls and supermarkets, the changing face of retail isn't so pretty. Most retail workers are earning less than they were 35 years ago after adjusting for inflation, and experts say they're increasingly being asked to accept unpredictable schedules so retailers can get the most work out of them at the lowest cost. Even though the economy has been slowly improving, many expect those trends to continue because of steep competition to offer lower prices and a continued weak job market for low-wage workers.

Take warnings that Amazon, Ebay and other online and mobile commerce outlets could render brick-and-mortar retailers virtually obsolete with a heaping chunk of salt. When it comes to consumer shopping desires, the store's still the thing. That's the key takeaway from the 

Consider Company X. Its annual sales-now $27.4 billion, or more than those of Estée Lauder, Hilton Worldwide, and Hershey combined-have risen 50 percent over the past six years. Its profits have almost tripled, to $2.1 billion. Its shareholders have been the beneficiaries of 18 consecutive years of earnings-per-share growth. In its nearly-four-decade history, it has had only one year of negative same-store sales. And it does all this by selling blouses...pots and pans...and bedding, sunglasses, sriracha seasoning, yoga mats and 

Sephora, the top seller of Dior lip gloss and Lancome face creams, is under attack in continental Europe from far less glamorous competitors: pharmacies. New data shows specialist beauty retailers such as Sephora, one 

Apple's glass-cube stores have become as familiar as Subway sandwich shops. But when Steve Jobs opened the first in 2001, the retail venture was expected to fail. "I give them two years before they're turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake," Apple's former chief financial officer, Joseph Goldstein, told BusinessWeek in