INDUSTRY NEWS
NEWS, NOTES & TRENDS...
AroundtheIndustry Retail Walmart At a time when many food and consumables retailers are ramping up their health care products and services for consumers, some Walmart locations will feature The Back Space, a chain of retail health care centers specializing in chiropractic and spinal care services. Target Target has opened a new store in Denver, adding to the retailer’s growing fleet of small-format stores. Wilson Sporting Goods Wilson Sporting Goods opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Chicago, with plans to open additional stores in New York, Los Angeles, Beijing and Shanghai over the next few months. The brand will use the Chicago store to test and collect feedback from shoppers and athletes. Victoria’s Secret Victoria’s Secret will open an off-mall location as part of a test of the retailer’s “store of the future” format, which will feature flexible merchandising, refined staffing, improved customer service and other efforts to cut costs. The store will be one of three openings later this year, with 10 more to follow next year. Best Buy Best Buy will acquire UK tech firm Current Health, moving the retailer further into the health care category. Current Health, which works with telehealth and remote patient monitoring, will join a roster of health care acquisitions for the retailer, including connected health device maker and emergency responder GreatCall and senior care firm Critical Signal Technologies. Bed Bath and Beyond Sleep products seller Casper will open its first branded brick-andmortar shop inside Bed Bath and Beyond’s renovated Manhattan flagship. The move is part of a larger partnership between the retailers that will also include adding Casper experiences at more Bed Bath and Beyond stores and selling Casper products at Bed Bath and Beyond stores nationwide and online.
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COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION & RENOVATION — ISSUE 9, 2021
American Dream Mall Legoland Discovery Center and the New Jersey SEA LIFE Aquarium open at the American Dream Meadowlands mall. The 25,000-square-foot “City Under the Sea”-themed aquarium is home to more than 3,000 marine creatures, while the Discovery Center features several Lego play zones and experiences, including a 4D cinema and a Lego-themed train ride.
Restaurants Shaq’s Big Chicken Shaquille O’Neal and partners JRS Hospitality and Authentic Brands have mapped an aggressive growth plan for Shaq’s Big Chicken, a concept created by the basketball star in 2018. The chain has started a new franchising program and plans to grow with brick-andmortar locations as well as ghost kitchens, including as many as 80 openings inside Walmart stores. TGI Fridays TGI Fridays has teamed with ghost kitchen operator Reef Technology on a plan to create delivery-only locations for the casual dining brand in as many as 300 global locations, starting with Reef’s hometown of Miami. Wakuda Multibrand operator 50 Eggs Hospitality Group will team with Michelin-starred chef Tetsuya Wakuda to launch Wakuda, a new concept that will open locations in Las Vegas and Singapore in 2022. The Las Vegas location will fill a 12,000-square-foot space at The Venetian and the Japan-themed concept will include an omakase room. Papa John’s Sun Holdings will open 100 Papa John’s locations in Texas by 2029 in the brand’s biggest US franchise deal to date. Papa John’s has shifted to larger development deals as it seeks expansion. Flip’d by IHOP IHOP has unveiled its first Flip’d by IHOP, a fast-casual concept, in Lawrence, Kansas, with plans for a second location in New York City. Customers can order online for pickup and delivery and dine-in patrons at the 55-seat restaurant can either place orders at the counter or use a digital kiosk for contactless ordering.
