Kevin McQuaid/Sarasota Business Observer – Main Plaza has anchored one end of Sarasota’s downtown for the past three decades, always teeming with potential but often mired by a lack of cohesion and vision. Mostly, in the two decades since Regal Cinemas debuted its Hollywood 20 cineplex at the 1991 Main St. site, Main Plaza has largely […]
Archives for 2015
Black Friday madness takes over area malls
Suzette Parmley/Philadelphia Inquirer – Black Friday was, by most accounts, mall madness. The annual shopping tour de force began at 6 p.m. Thursday at the region’s shopping meccas and big-box retailers. With unusually warm weather and retailers’ deep discounts, the public’s appetite to buy, peruse, or eat remained strong all day Friday, according to retailers and […]
Retail Therapy: Shoppers should expect a calmer Black Friday experience
Bethany Clough/Fresno Bee – The frenzy is fizzling. Where Black Fridays of years past had thousands of people lining up outside stores and tense moments inside, things will be less frantic this year. Why? Several reasons: The steamrolling of earlier opening times into Thanksgiving Day has stalled. Shoppers have been taking advantage of doorbuster deals for weeks already. More people […]
As Thanksgiving & Black Friday draw near, Tampa Bay stores are getting ready
Justine Griffin/Tampa Bay Times – A sea of blue shirts swarmed inside the Best Buy store on Dale Mabry Highway early Saturday morning as more than 90 sales associates, shelf stockers, managers and Geek Squad agents were drilled in preparation for the store’s busiest day of the year: Black Friday. Best Buy employees studied maps […]
Staying ahead of the home-sharing trend
Jeff Green & Jerry Hoffman/Hotel Business– Since its aggressive inception into the market six years ago, more than 35 million consumers have used home-sharing startup Airbnb as an alternative to a traditional hotel during their vacation or business travel. A report from Boston University reveals a 10 percent increase in Airbnb supply results in a 0.35 […]
2015 Holiday Season Retail Storecast
Jeff Green/Chain Store Age- With (believe it or not) the holiday season almost upon us, it is time once again to take part in the annual ritual of crystal ball gazing and seasonal sales forecasts. That is by no means intended to be dismissive of such predictions, as a great deal of very intelligent retail professionals […]
