Three companies finalized the acquisition of Forever 21, marketing company Authentic Brands Group announced earlier this week. The new ownership group — mall owners Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners, with Authentic Brands — say they expect to keep Forever 21's 448 U.S. stores open. Court filings earlier this month put the price of the sale at $81…
Victoria’s Secret, the once powerful and successful lingerie brand, will go private, CNBC reported. The brand made a deal with private equity firm Sycamore Partners that shows how much its value has recently diminished. For $525 million, the firm will acquire a 55 percent share in Victoria’s Secret from its owner, L Brands, and L Brands…
Brick-and-mortar retail has a long and prosperous future ahead. Despite popular misconceptions about online stores and drone deliveries, people still need real stores in their lives — and will for decades to come. Research from Escalent found that despite the impressive growth of e-commerce, in-store sales still dwarf online sales ($152.7 billion vs. $62.5 billion).…
Macy's announced Tuesday a new three-year growth strategy that includes plans to close 125 of its least productive stores and cut 2,000 corporate positions among other changes, reports CNBC. The retailer is closing its San Francisco, downtown Cincinnati and Lorain, OH offices, consolidating headquarters to its New York City location. The turnaround plan, dubbed the Polaris strategy,…
Sephora has big growth plans, at a time when many retail businesses are shutting their doors for good. The beauty retailer, owned by Louis Vuitton parent company LVMH, will open 100 stores in 2020. This marks its largest real estate expansion to date, more than doubling its store growth in 2019. And the focus, with this…
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.…
