Five Below, Five in Detroit

The Philadelphia based retailer which started in 2002 will open 5 locations in Detroit.  It appears Five Below is up to 140 stores in 13 states.

See the rest of the article at BrightonPatch.com.

Target Going to Work in Canada

Walmart Canada Corp. has the most to lose when Target Corp. begins opening stores in Canada, according to the latest research on consumer loyalty.

Target announced the first 105 proposed store leases that it was acquiring from Zellers.

Earlier this year it paid $1.8-billion to Zellers owner Richard Baker for up to 220 leasehold interests of Zellers locations. Walmart signed a deal to acquire leases at up to 39 sites now operated by Zellers from Target Canada.Target announced the first 105 proposed store leases that it was acquiring from Zellers.

That Target has managed to achieve such brand resonance in Canada two years before opening and without any mass communication efforts is a remarkable feat said Mr. Satov founder of the Toronto consulting firm Satov Consultants.

Target’s status as a potential grocery player is uncertain in Canada and hinges, initially at least, on leasing restrictions in the malls where Zellers operates. Many of those malls are already anchored by another full grocery store.

The above was reported on cbc.ca.

cbc.ca Article

hhgregg Creating 700 New Chicago Area Jobs

hhgregg, Inc., a specialty retailer of consumer electronics, has announced that it will fill approximately 700 positions for 14 new stores scheduled to open in the Chicago area in fall 2011 as reported on istockanalyst.com

Article Link

Big Lots Getting Bigger

Shopping Center Business reported that Big Lots, which offers an extensive assortment of brand-name products, including home furnishings, seasonal items, housewares, toys and gifts at closeout prices, is opening a “lot” more stores in 2011, continuing a big push in new store growth from last year.


Big Lots operates more than 1,400 retail stores serving 48 states, and is heavily concentrated in four states: Ohio, Florida, Texas and California. 


This year, Big Lots intends to open 90 stores throughout the country, focusing specifically on the Northeast and East Coast, as well as the Northwest and West Coast, with some stores sprinkled throughout the Midwest.


The stores themselves are, ideally, 20,000- to 30,000-square-foot facilities (although there are Big Lots stores from 15,000 to 60,000 square feet) in strip centers or freestanding stores on major traffic arteries, serving trade areas of 50,000 with a median income of $35,000 to $90,000.


The company has two different store concepts and aims to keep its stores clean and bright with well-stocked departments. Traditional stores are typically housed in secondary space, such as a former Walmart or grocery store. Then there are “A-store” locations, primarily in the best strip shopping centers in the market. Co-tenants in a traditional center will primarily be regional players, while the A-store co-tenants are usually retailers like Target, Best Buy and Old Navy.


So what makes Big Lots so attractive to landlords? “We are investment-grade credit and, to my knowledge, we’ve never missed a rent payment,” says Chuck Haubiel, vice president, legal and real estate for the company. “And in these days and times, I think that’s a very attractive thing.”

Shopping Center Business Article

1,000th Dress for Less Store

Congratulations Ross Dress for Less!


Ross Stores will celebrate on July 16 the opening of its 1,000th Dress for Less store in North Pleasant Hill, Calif. 


Retailingtoday.com Article

Did You Know So Many People Like to Hunt?

Ellen Gibson (AP) recently wrote for seattlepi.com.


Retailers like Trader Joe's, DSW, T.J. Maxx, Costco, BJ's, and Dollar Tree lure you in to buy one thing, but then count on the impulse buy for unexpected treasures.  


Goodies at Trader Joe's aren't on most grocery lists, but they're eye-catching enough to tempt shoppers into an impulse buy. At a time when families are watching dollars and the Web makes discount-hunting easy, unexpected treasures are an increasingly important strategy for stores.

So shoppers may go into T.J. Maxx or a DSW shoe store looking for a bargain on something they need but end up splurging on irresistible finds, from dirt-cheap Ray-Bans to half-priced Puma sneakers.

Costco has been using the term "treasure hunt" for years to explain why up to a fifth of its stock is limited-quantity items that are in the store for as little as a week. Sometimes it's seasonal merchandise, often it's surprisingly trendy.

The quick turnover of merchandise creates a sense of urgency: If you don't buy it today, it probably won't be here tomorrow. When the economy tanked, TJX began cycling inventory through the store faster than ever before. A rapidly changing assortment is the top driver of traffic, especially when stores are competing with the Internet.

Superstores like Kmart and Walmart are getting stung by online competition. Any mass-market product — think Jif peanut butter or Hanes T-shirts — can be comparison-priced online, and people tend to buy from the cheapest source. Increasingly, that's Amazon.com or another Web retailer.

Seattlepi.com Article

Petsmart & Petco Not Feeling the Heat from Discounters

The Wall Street Transcript, which publishes its Pets and Vets Report, recently interviewed Joan Storms, CFA.  She is a sell-side Equity Analyst with 16 years experience covering specialty hardline retail companies. She has been at Wedbush Securities since 1999.  During the interview she provided the following information.
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The industry is highly fragmented. You have PetSmart (PETM) and PETCO, the largest specialty retailers in the U.S., which combined are probably about 20% of the market. Those companies have very good returns, so it has been an attractive area for the discounters to want to try to exploit and expand the category because it is largely consumable and it is a traffic driver. There are a lot of players in the pet market, including specialty pet stores and mega retailers, and even grocery stores, who have different levels of participation in the pet sector. Overall, though, the big retail players are PetSmart and PETCO.


The real competition is from other specialty stores. It is a highly fragmented marketplace. The market share opportunity has really expanded for the larger retailers because a lot of the independents went out of business during the recession. 


It was a few years ago when there was a lot of talk about increased competition from mass merchants like Target (TGT), which announced they were going to expand their pet business. And Wal-Mart (WMT) was getting some access, but still very limited access, to some of the higher nutrition content food. People thought this was going to be a big deal, but it really has not had much of an impact on the specialty retail sector at all. If you look at Wal-Mart, most of the pet food is actually their own private label brands, although they do carry a very limited number of higher-nutrition-content SKUs that are gaining in popularity. Overall, they carry a very small assortment and there is no service. Pet owners want to know what kind of food to buy or what kind of medicines, which really requires knowledgeable customer service. And that's one thing that PetSmart has done a phenomenal job with. They train their associates about pet foods, medicines and other products.


The Wall Street Transcript Article