Retail Stores

Online shopping might be easy, convenient and prolific, yet it hasn’t erased the need for flagship brick-and-mortar retail establishments. In fact, retail real estate is undergoing a phenomenal — and some might say surprising — comeback. As REJournals reported, roughly 60 percent of businesses with physical retail assets plan to expand their footprints in 2022. What’s driving the momentum?…

Ingka Group, Ikea’s largest franchisee, on Monday announced it would invest more than 3 billion euros, or about $3.2 billion at press time, in its stores by the end of next year. The retailer aims to become more accessible for customers whenever and wherever they want to interact, according to a company press release. Ikea will…

Meta, formerly Facebook, announced Tuesday that it would open its first physical store next month. The social media giant said in a blog post Monday that the store, which will be located in Burlingame, Calif., would be "a space to discover Meta Portal, Ray-Ban Stories, and Meta Quest 2 and try them out in person."…

Rite Aid plans to close a total of 145 “unprofitable” stores as part of its optimization efforts. The drug store chain announced it was closing an initial 63 stores in December, and is looking to save in administrative and labor costs and make improvements across payroll and the supply chain, with total savings expected to reach $170…

Retail sales in March climbed 0.5 percent from the previous month, slightly less than the 0.6 percent Dow Jones estimate and a deceleration from the upwardly revised 0.8 percent gain in February. The data came with inflation rising 1.1 percent for the month as measured by the consumer price index. Inflation rose to its highest level since…

We’re already into April and retailers are shelving their spring collection items fast. As the temperatures start to warm up, and as COVID-19 restrictions continue to loosen across the U.S., retailers should be preparing for a surge in in-store shopping once more. Akin to the “revenge shopping” trend that we’ve seen emerge during the warmer…

Join Quantum Metric and Google Cloud as they highlight some of the biggest retail trends for the year in back-to-school shopping.

In episode 342 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Ron Thurston, Amazon.com No. 1 best-selling author of "RETAIL PRIDE: The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career" and veteran retail executive. Thurston discusses his career history in the retail industry, what he loves about working in the retail space, and how the frontline store…

The past two years have shown us the value of preparation. For the first time in a long time, the average American has had to consider that everything can change at the drop of a dime. Despite new and unforeseen challenges in 2020 and 2021, preparation for the unexpected is nothing new for retailers. As…

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit retailers across the globe particularly hard. Depending on the jurisdiction, some were forced to close temporarily, while most had to limit the number of customers allowed inside at one time. As vaccination rates increased, restrictions were relaxed, and for many stores, it was business as usual — just with everyone…