Quentin Fottrell / MarketWatch – Experience of StubHub and J.C. Penney suggests people like price tricks. Maybe consumers can’t handle the truth. We say we don’t want to be tricked by price-tag gimmicks and hidden fees, but companies find that when they’re up front and honest, they lose customers. Three months after StubHub began including […]
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New businesses run leaner as job growth fails to bounce back
Amy Martinez / The Seattle Times – On the eighth floor of a 1930s downtown building that once housed many employees of Pacific Northwest Bell, dozens of fledgling technology companies at a startup incubator represent a new approach to hiring. Most have only one or two full-time employees and use part timers as needed. Cloud […]
Nationwide wave of store closings grows
The experts who keep track of store openings and closings have been forecasting for more than a decade that the day was coming when American retailers would have to pay for building far too many stores.
That day of reckoning, some say, has arrived, with one retail watcher predicting a “tsunami” of store closings this year.
RadioShack to close 1,100 stores
Jennifer Sheehan/The Morning Call—Electronics chain RadioShack Corp. announced Tuesday that it plans to close up to 1,100 stores across the country thanks to plunging sales. The planned closures would leave the Fort Worth, Texas company with more than 4,000 stores, including more than 900 dealer franchise locations, its chief executive officer said. According to the […]
Demographics lay out case for locating Whole Foods at Tempe high-rise project
Last week, local retail expert Jeff Green, president of Jeff Green Partners, weighed in on the multimillion-dollar high-rise apartment project going up in downtown Tempe. The development has a letter of intent from Whole Foods to occupy a retail space. Such a move would fill a void in the Mill Avenue area for a grocery store.
Phillipsburg Mall struggles to fill stores
Ryan Kneller/The Morning Call—J.C. Penney’s announcement last month that it would close 33 underperforming stores, including its Phillipsburg Mall location raised an obvious question: “What is the future of the Phillipsburg Mall?” In recent years, the mall has been hemorrhaging stores, including high-profile retailers such as American Eagle, FYE, Gap and PacSun. This past year […]
