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Cobourg woman opens store with novel concept Monday, Aug. 18 - Even women who shop out of town for their jeans can patronize a Cobourg merchant, now that Amber Kelly's Denim Diva store has opened in the Upper Canada Mall.

Ms. Kelly's idea of a store to offer women jeans that really fit was the winner in the Ivanhoe Cambridge Retail Evolution contest, the prize for which was $150,000 to make her store a reality in an Ivanhoe mall. On July 23, Denim Diva opened its doors. Read More...

Shopping mall's bid to slash energy costs Monday, Aug. 18 - A Coventry shopping mall is going green to help tackle rising energy costs and support the local economy.

Andy Talbot, centre manager at West Orchards Shopping Centre, said he had adopted a number of eco-friendly initiatives to help the centre through the current tough economic climate. The centre is now 17 years old. Read More...

Indian jewelry chain opens in Windy City Monday, Aug. 18 - Chicago—Tanishq, a national jewelry-store chain in India, has opened its first U.S. store in a mall in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Ill.

The store, located in the Woodfield Mall, will feature permanent and revolving collections of jewelry that change with the seasons. Its initial collections—Yoga, Spring and Lotus—will feature designs inspired by nature and philosophy. Read More...

Value Added: The Cookie Diet Hits The Web Monday, Aug. 18 - One of my favorite movie lines comes out of Citizen Kane, when Everett Sloane tells Joseph Cotton, "it's no trick to make a lot of money... if what you want to do is make a lot of money." Matthew Siegal made me think of that line when he told me how easy it was to expand his father's diet cookie business, which could earn Matt millions if everything goes right.

Siegal, 43, has taken his father's Florida-based weight-control medical practice and, from a tiny Tysons Corner office, is masterminding an international retail and online diet cookie campaign that will earn $3.9 million this year on $11 million-plus in revenues. He just opened a kiosk Aug. 1 at Tysons Corner Center mall. Read More...

Price-Fixing Makes Comeback After Supreme Court Ruling Monday, Aug. 18 - Manufacturers are embracing broad new legal powers that amount to a type of price-fixing -- enabling them to set minimum prices on their products and force retailers to refrain from discounting.

For the better part of a century, punishing retailers for selling at cut-rate prices was an automatic violation of antitrust law. However, a Supreme Court ruling last year involving handbag sales at a Dallas mom-and-pop store, Kay's Kloset, upended that original 1911 precedent, potentially altering the face of U.S. discount retailing. Read More...

Canada's Ivanhoe eyes investments in malls, retail Monday, Aug. 18 - After setting up its real estate arm SITQ a couple of months ago, Canadian fund manager Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec is starting operations of its mall management and investment arm Ivanhoe Cambridge in India soon.

Caisse manages nearly $155 billion of pension and insurance funds in Canada and North America while Ivanhoe has 70 shopping centres in Canada, the US, Europe and Latin America, totalling 46 million sq ft. Read More...

Mall entrance beckons Sunday, Aug. 17 - The doors are somewhat hidden amid the construction surrounding it, and the fountains are muffled by drills and saws, but as mall shoppers walk inside they stop in their tracks.

The smell hits you first, the overpowering aroma of flooring and furniture and block. Your eyes catch up a breath or two later and the sun and clouds cast shadows on your skin through towering walls of windows. The gray textured flooring curves, leading shoppers into center court.

Warm. Comfortable. Inviting. These are some of the adjectives University Park Mall shoppers Friday used to describe the entrance that formally opened that morning. The event carried no fanfare, no mall managers unveiling this part of the redevelopment project in a press conference. Every now and then a construction worker in the future Barnes & Noble peeked through a window to see if people admired their work. Read More...

School start indicator of retail health Sunday, Aug. 17 - Retailers will be paying special attention to sales totals this weekend.

School begins Monday in some South Dakota towns, including Sioux Falls. The shopping for supplies and clothing in preparation for the return to classes usually is a key indicator of economic health for the rest of the year. That's true for Sioux Falls-based pharmacy and retailer Lewis Drug. Read More...

To compete, malls get more than a face-lift Sunday, Aug. 17 -

It was all about the Jersey plates. Too many of them, too often, filling up parking spots at the King of Prussia mall. All those Jersey shoppers, with all that Jersey cash, ditching their local malls and defecting to the Main Line / Montgomery County mecca of upscale shopping.

The frustration was enough to fuel a counterattack from an underdog that decided the time had come: Fight back. Reclaim what should be yours. And while you're at it, stick it to the rest of the competition, too - those big-box shopping centers that have stolen suburbanites from under the once-supreme shopping mall. Hoping to win back the sex appeal, the Cherry Hill, Plymouth Meeting and former Echelon Malls are undergoing a real estate version of plastic and bariatric surgery. Read More...

Shoppers go for the gold on tax holiday Sunday, Aug. 17 - Savvy shoppers crowded Boston-area malls and stores yesterday, taking advantage of the state's fifth annual sales tax holiday and saving 5 percent on items ranging from school supplies to expensive electronics. Retailers, fearful that the sluggish economy would keep spending down, were relieved. Read More...

Thousands hit Houston-area stores on tax-free weekend Saturday, Aug. 16 - While clouds kept temperatures relatively low on Saturday, shoppers' tempers were hot as they flocked to stores during Texas' annual sales tax holiday weekend. Scarce parking and long lines plagued some retailers, making shoppers grumpy and less than polite. Read More...

'Made in Canada' gains cachet Saturday, Aug. 16 - High oil prices and increased environmental awareness are combining to change our shopping habits and the origin of goods available in stores. Not only are Canadian-made goods more popular and more affordable, but there's some evidence that consumers are starting to shop closer to home. Read More...

Tax-free shopping starts Sunday Friday, Aug. 15 - Farmington, CT -- With the struggling economy, the state's annual week-long sales tax holiday has never been more welcome. The back to school shopping frenzy is well underway at Westfarms Mall and every other mall across the state. Starting on Sunday and for seven days after that there will be a bargain from state government. Read More...

Malls feel squeeze of retail bankruptcies Friday, Aug. 15 - Steve & Barry's announced plans in March to open a store at the West Manchester Mall in York County. Three months later, the New York-based discount-clothing retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Now Bob Herbert is not sure if and when the anticipated 18,000-square-foot store will open.

"We still anticipate the store opening but don't have any confirmed date," said Herbert, marketing manager for the mall. "We hope it opens. The interest is definitely there, but nothing has been communicated to us as a definite one way or the other." Read More...

Harrington: Appraiser at home in the mall Friday, Aug. 15 - At the mall you can find just about anything you want, from clothes and computers to furniture and eyeglasses. So why not a house? Through his business, Home Audience, Bill Duncan plans to offer shoppers just that.

Next month at West Town Mall, interested home buyers will be able to view residential listings that will continuously rotate on four 42-inch LCD screens placed at a kiosk near the entrance to the food court, across from Claire's. Read More...

Twelve Oaks' expansion in Novi attracts stores, despite slow pace in retail construction Thursday, Aug. 14 - Nearly a year after opening the 97,000-square-foot expansion of Twelve Oaks Mall, the shopping center is experiencing continued positive leasing activity. Growth is particularly strong in the food category. In August, California Pizza Kitchen opened a location in Twelve Oaks, and Mrs. Field's Cookies will open there this fall.

Twelve Oaks also reports success in men's and women's apparel, which nationwide has struggled. Clothing retailers Freaky Tiki and Club Monaco have joined the ranks of Twelve Oaks' retail lineup of nearly 200 stores. Read More...