Retail Stores

As the first digitally native generation, Gen Z (the generation born after 1997) is the most tech-savvy group of consumers to ever walk a mall. In honor of the first annual National Mall Walking Day on Oct. 8, we asked 20,000 American consumers about their mall shopping habits. The results surprised us, and they may…

Two conflicting sentiments — hope and trepidation — are the driving force behind many U.S. retailers’ marketing plans for this year. U.S. retail sales rose 3.4 percent during the 2019 holiday season. The online sales for apparel, jewelry, and department stores all saw year-over-year increases. In 2020, retailers hope for growth rests on their ability to…

Walmart is testing out a higher minimum starting wage for certain jobs at about 500 of its stores as part of a broader overhaul of roles and responsibilities across its U.S. workforce. According to Bloomberg, Walmart is raising starting minimum hourly wages to $12 from $11. Under the retailer’s new operating model, dubbed “Great Workplace,” some…

Fashion retailer Express announced plans to shutter approximately 100 of its stores by 2022 in an effort to save costs, CNBC reported. The plan would save the company $80 million in costs annually over the next three years. Express also announced that it will be restructuring its workforce, which will impact about 10 percent of the…

Stationery chain Papyrus is reportedly closing all of its stores across the United States. Citing two anonymous sources, Retail Dive's Ben Unglesbee reported that the chain's parent company, the Schurman Retail Group, plans to close all Papyrus retail locations. The first Papyrus location opened up in Berkeley, California, in 1973, although the brand itself dates back to 1950.…

The retail industry has witnessed a seismic shift as of late, with the emergence of direct-to-consumer (D-to-C) brands, an increasingly saturated market with a flood of new options in every vertical, and the ever-lingering dominance of Amazon.com and other e-commerce giants. Therefore, it’s no surprise that brands have had to drastically shift their strategies to…

CVS Health is on track to meet its goal of rehabbing more than 1,000 of its stores, CNBC reported. At the end of 2018, CVS launched three of its HealthHUB concept stores in the Houston region, before expanding the program to 50 locations in four markets by the end of 2019. Hundreds more are scheduled to be…

The notion that millennials are harbingers of the retail apocalypse is, in fact, a myth. New data from Accenture quashes this misconception, having found 82 percent of millennials prefer shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. The fact that millennials haven’t simply abandoned brick-and-mortar retail in favor of online shopping is a testament to the power of a smart, unified…

Online mattress company Casper Sleep on Friday filed regulatory paperwork to take the company public, according to a CNBC report. Casper Sleep would be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CSPR.”  In the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Casper said it plans to use the proceeds to fund…

Macy's announced Wednesday its plans to close 29 stores in the coming weeks, reports The Washington Post. The closures include 28 Macy's department stores and one Bloomingdale's location, following a reported 0.6 percent decline in same-store sales during the holiday season. That compares with the 1.1 percent growth recorded during November and December last year. Macy's…