Retailers

Boscov's department store will return to White Marsh Mall Oct. 7, filling the empty anchor spot the regional chain vacated nearly four years ago after it filed for bankruptcy. "I'm glad we are returning to White Marsh Mall," Albert Boscov, the retailer's chairman and CEO and son of the founder, said in a statement. "It was a great store, and we look forward to creating a new, more exciting Boscov's in the Baltimore area. " The family-owned chain, based in Reading, Pa., once had half a dozen department stores in Maryland.

Boscov's department store will return to White Marsh Mall Oct. 7, filling the empty anchor spot the regional chain vacated nearly four years ago after it filed for bankruptcy. "I'm glad we are returning to White Marsh Mall," Albert Boscov, the retailer's chairman and CEO and son of the founder, said in a statement. "It was a great store, and we look forward to creating a new, more exciting Boscov's in the Baltimore area. " The family-owned chain, based in Reading, Pa., once had half a dozen department stores in Maryland.

Online shoppers prefer Walmart to Target. That's one of the findings of an index released today that scores the top 100 online retailers on customer satisfaction. ForeSee's Top 100 E-Retail Satisfaction Index based its analysis on nearly 21,000 surveys of online shoppers in the first quarter of 2012. The scores, calculated on a 100-point scale, range from a high of 89 for Amazon to a low of 69 for Ancestry.com and efollett.com. The top six, all with scores of 83 or higher, were Amazon, Apple, QVC, Keurig, Avon and L.L. Bean.

The master developer of Columbia's Town Center aims to begin construction by early next year on a $100 million apartment and retail complex, the area's first new housing in a decade. The Metropolitan Downtown Columbia will be a six-story, 380-unit development that the Howard Hughes Corp. plans to build in a joint venture with Kettler of McLean, Va., and Orchard Development of Ellicott City, on land next to The Mall in Columbia. Rents are expected to range from $1,600 a month for a one-bedroom apartment to $2,800 for a three-bedroom unit — making them among the highest in the region.

After a seven-year delay, Randallstown residents cheered Monday over an announcement that a Walmart will open on Liberty Road next year. Officials and residents have long hoped that the store — a planned $9 million, 160,000-square-foot supercenter with groceries and a pharmacy — would revitalize the aging commercial corridor, encouraging other national retailers and restaurants to set up shop in the affluent, largely black community....

So, the reindeer sweater from Aunt Emma this Christmas isn't quite your style, so you and thousands of others are now in the process of returning gifts. Which retailers provide the speediest returns? STELLAService, which rates the customer service of online retailers, put them to the test. The company ordered and returned several items to the top 25 retailers from various parts of the country during the weeks before Christmas. The fastest: Amazon.com, whose returns averaged 4.3 days.

Walmart's size and clout have long enabled it to make waves in retailing, and this holiday season was no exception when the world's largest retailer's decision to offer free shipping had ripple effects. When Walmart announced earlier in the season that it wouldn't charge to ship nearly 60,000 items from its website, with no minimum purchase, other retailers were forced to follow to compete. Best Buy, the electronics chain, was just one that responded by also offering free shipping.

It was just a matter of time before businesses began to push back against some of the worst behaviors of extreme couponers. Some retailers and manufacturers have revised their policies lately, restricting the number of coupons consumers can use to prevent them from stripping shelves bare or from paying little or nothing for baskets of groceries. Rite Aid, for example, changed its policy in May so savvy shoppers can no longer double up on buy-one-get-one-free coupons and not pay anything.

When Walmart wanted to get the word out that it had received a huge shipment of the most sought-after toy just in time for the year-end shopping season, the retailer turned to its more than 400,000 Facebook friends first. Through teaser messages on its Facebook page, followers were asked to guess the mystery product that would soon be stocked on shelves. When Walmart revealed that the toy was the robotic hamster Zhu Zhu pets, it posted up-to-date messages and videos on when the toy would reach stores.

While the recently released Maryland comptroller's report on direct shipment of wine is both welcomed and needed, it contains some highly controversial conclusions, the most important of which is that Maryland consumers ought not be allowed to purchase wine from out-of-state wine stores. The report is an important and substantial step in clearing the air and injecting a strong set of facts into what has been a long and contentious debate over consumer access to the wine market. However, it must be noted that the report's conclusion that Marylanders be deprived of access to out-of-state wine stores, as well as the published comments by Comptroller Peter Franchot that this kind of prohibition is a good thing, can only be described as anti-consumer, discriminatory and inconsistent with the results of the comptroller's survey.

If local pharmacists could write the regulations, Marylanders probably wouldn't ever have been allowed to get their prescriptions filled at chain stores like Walgreens and Rite-Aid. Independent video stores probably would have liked to outlaw Blockbuster, just as small bookstore owners probably would have been just as happy if the state had a ban on Barnes & Noble. (For that matter, Blockbuster might like an injunction against Netflix and Barnes & Noble on Amazon.com.) And most of all, Main Street merchants everywhere would probably love a world where Walmart was illegal.

Online shoppers prefer Walmart to Target. That's one of the findings of an index released today that scores the top 100 online retailers on customer satisfaction. ForeSee's Top 100 E-Retail Satisfaction Index based its analysis on nearly 21,000 surveys of online shoppers in the first quarter of 2012. The scores, calculated on a 100-point scale, range from a high of 89 for Amazon to a low of 69 for Ancestry.com and efollett.com. The top six, all with scores of 83 or higher, were Amazon, Apple, QVC, Keurig, Avon and L.L. Bean.

A developer has filed for a permit to demolish theMorris A. Mechanic Theatre, a decades-old venue that has sat unused for eight years in the heart of downtown Baltimore, and replace it with a $150 million-to-$200 million mixed-use development. OneWest LLC plans to build two 30-story towers containing 600 market-rate apartments, 150,000 square feet of retail space and an underground parking garage on the site at 1 NorthCharles St., the partnership said. "The market is ripe and the financing is available for apartments," said Howard S. Brown, a partner in OneWest and chairman and president of Owings Mills-based David S. Brown Enterprises Ltd., which is managing the development.

Teachers, students, retailers and beverage industry lobbyists are preparing for a showdown Wednesday as the battle over raising Baltimore's bottle tax to fund school repairs moves to a skeptical City Council committee. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake wants to increase the tax from 2 cents to 5 cents and use the proceeds to float bonds. The mayor, who saw her school construction initiatives wither in the General Assembly, is pushing the council to quickly pass the tax, although it would not go into effect for more than a year.

Now I really feel old. A friend of mine used to call the grocery store at the Rotunda the "Flirt Giant. " And it was true, back when I moved here about 25 years ago: You got the sense people were trolling the aisles there for more than Lean Cuisines. It was bad enough that over the years the Flirt Giant aged out — if there were still shoppers on the prowl there, they also were probably on walkers. The Rotunda itself was sagging a bit, slowly some of its smaller shops, but as long as the Giant anchored one end and the movie theater the other, the mall seemed to still have a heartbeat.

The addition of four national retailers - Anthropologie, J. Crew, MAC Cosmetics and Lululemon Athletica - at Harbor East could solidify the Baltimore waterfront neighborhood as one of the region's top shopping destinations, local retail consultants and business owners said Wednesday. "It makes downtown even more vibrant and attractive to high-quality, upscale retailers," said Mark Millman, chief executive officer of the retail executive hiring firm Millman Search Group in Owings Mills.

As retailers prepare for the traditional start of the holiday season this coming week, some of the nation's biggest chains plan to pre-empt Black Friday with shopping hours and special events on Thanksgiving Day — a move that has triggered a spate of online protests. Toys "R" Us will open stores at 9 p.m. and Walmart will follow at 10 p.m., meaning that shoppers may be lining up for bargains soon after their turkey dinners. Target, Best Buy and Kohl's are shifting from their usual pre-dawn Friday openings, welcoming shoppers at midnight.

Last year, the Persian Gulf crisis. This year, the economic crisis.The nation's retailers, operating with lean inventories and xTC reduced staffs, are soberly prepared for slim profits this Christmas shopping season. A sales gain of 2 percent to 4 percent over the dour results of last year's holiday season is predicted by many Wall Street analysts.Though enthusiasm is modestly better than a couple of months ago, analysts somberly note that this year there are six less shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The Owings Mills market can't handle major retail development at the former Solo Cup property and other sites along the Reisterstown Road corridor, according to studies commissioned by the developer planning to revamp the mall. The market analysis and traffic studies released Wednesday by Kimco Realty come as Baltimore County begins a broad zoning review. As competition builds between developers, Owings Mills revitalization is expected to be among the most controversial topics. Kimco is planning a $65 million redevelopment of Owings Mills Mall, now more than half-empty.

Sometimes less is more, more or less. Sometimes, less is all you have and all you have will do just fine. Sometimes, the small things, the short things, the bits and pieces are worth keeping because they might be one day useful; my father felt that way about stove bolts. Walter Hard, a Vermont folk poet of Robert Frost's generation, once told of the frugal Yankee woman - was there any other kind? - who left a bag in her attic labeled, "Pieces of string too short to use. " So, alrighty then, that's my preamble and I'm going with it. Here, forthwith, are pieces of column too short to use ... • Suggestion for the Baltimore merchants who oppose Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's proposal to increase the city's bottle tax to five cents to pay for school renovations: Turn what you see as a problem into an opportunity.