Tag Archives: Retail

A pair of darkened Pier 1 Imports stores in the Charleston area will soon be reconfigured for new tenants.

Memphis, Tenn.-based AutoZone plans to renovate the former houseware chain’s location at 7643 Rivers Ave. in North Charleston while discount retailer Five Below plans to move into the former Pier 1 space in Azalea Square Shopping Center in Summerville, according to construction documents.

Plans call for the new store in North Charleston to take up 8,993 square feet in the shopping center where Outback Steakhouse operates near Northwoods Mall.

AutoZone has 14 stores in the Charleston area.

In Summerville, Philadelphia-based Five Below, which sells almost all items for $5 or less, plans to open a second Charleston-area location in a 10,974-square-foot shop

“Our business remains very strong, and we’ve seen record demand for our products across categories as people spend more time at home and improve their home offices, kitchens, outdoor spaces and more,” Crate spokeswoman Vicki Lang says in an email. “Janet’s leadership and deep background in home and design have set us up for continued success as we innovate in ways that will excite our new and existing customers.”

Homebound customers with disposable income drove sales at home furnishing stores last year. After dropping off to less than $2 billion in April, sales rebounded to almost $4.8 billion in September, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Crate & Barrel’s competitors cashed in. Williams Sonoma reported net earnings of almost $372 million for the 39 weeks that ended Nov. 1, a roughly 96 percent increase year over year. Wayfair’s net revenue was up to almost $10.5 million during the

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a difficult blow to the shops in the Pueblo Mall, but merchants are starting to see signs of improvement.

“The last year has been an incredibly difficult time for brick and mortar retail and while most businesses are rebounding, there are unfortunately those that elected to close their doors including Victoria’s Secret, Verizon and Children’s Place,” said Cara Fitzgerald of Centennial which oversees the Pueblo Mall. “On the bright side, we were happy to welcome Osaka Poke & Ramen in December and they are being well received by our shoppers.”

Osaka Poke & Ramen owner Ray Zhu agreed that opening a business during a pandemic “is kind of a risk,” but said, “it’s going pretty good. Good in December but January and February, slow,” he said.

“The most favorite thing is the Japanese traditional ramen served with broth, that’s very popular. The Tonkotsu of spicy

While several automakers and dealer vendors quickly ramped up their digital retailing efforts as COVID-19 struck the U.S. industry early last year, their approaches differed greatly, as did the depth of their penetration into a purchase transaction. Some work more as internal lead generators, others expedite finance applications or allow cross-shopping between dealerships.

Toyota’s approach is very dealer-centric, explains Tim Bliss, general manager for retail transformation at Toyota Motor North America and the man leading the in-house development of SmartPath. One example: A prospective buyer can look at the inventory of only one dealer at a time.

“The biggest piece to really get this up and running was building that real-time inventory integration with the dealer’s DMS system, and that’s really the key to the whole platform,” Bliss explained. Pricing, incentives and availability update automatically.

When a consumer looking for a new Toyota lands on one of the web pages,