Blog Posts: Retail Law Advisor
Visit the Full BlogThis blog keeps you connected to timely developments and emerging issues in retail law and covers a wide range of topics related to the retail, restaurant and consumer industry. We invite you to learn more about Goulston & Storrs and our Retail, Restaurant & Consumer Group.
When the Retail Anchor Becomes the Risk… or Opportunity?
Big box stores have recently been large contributors to the “retail apocalypse” facing owners of shopping centers with broad swaths of empty space. Some landlords are discovering that they need to take a more active role at the helm of their centers and find new ways to attract customers...
The Intersection Between Technology and Retail: The Use of Blockchain Technology in Tracking Supply Chains
In the past few years, many industries have poured resources into exploring how they can use blockchain to grow. The retail industry is no exception. During 2018, the U.S. retail sector spent double the amount of money on blockchain technology than it had in 2017 and annual revenues from blockchain...
Four Ways for Leases to Keep Up with Innovative Retail
Industry experts seem to agree that while traditional retailers may be on the decline, innovative stores that focus on “experiential retail” -- interesting, memorable, interactive, multi-sensory shopping experiences -- will continue to thrive. To keep up with developments in the retail sector, landlords and tenants should consider modifying their...
Bag Bans: The War on Plastic Bags
Grocery shoppers used to make the final decision of their supermarket trip in the checkout line. Reaching for boxes of cereal, cartons of eggs, and jars of jam in their rolling metal carts, placing those items onto slow-moving counter conveyor belts, they weighed two options. Paper or plastic? Which...
‘Tis Always the Season for a Pop-up
With Tax Day just around the corner, there is a good chance that you find yourself (along with millions of other Americans) scrambling to get your taxes filed at the last minute. You also might notice the temporary tax service shops that seem to pop up at the local...
Intrusion or Tool: Consumer Data’s Increasing Role in Retail
It’s no secret that retailers have access to more information about their target consumers than ever before. This information can help retailers not only to target their broad market but also to tailor the communications they deliver to each segment of that market. Customers, on the other hand, are...
Update: Tip Pooling by Restaurant Owners is Guided by Tip Income Protection Act of 2018
When we last looked at tip pooling at restaurants and who would be permitted to be included, the laws and regulations were in flux. Since then, the Tip Income Protection Act of 2018 was signed into law. Among other things, in instances where the employer is paying full minimum...
Opportunity Zones Steal the Show
ICSC's 2019 Mid-Atlantic Conference and Deal Making
The Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center played host to the ICSC's 2019 Mid-Atlantic Conference and Deal Making event last week. After being snowed out last year, the conference rebounded with high attendance and spectacular views of the Potomac River. The overall mood of attendees was surprisingly upbeat given the...
Technology Shifts the Retail Landscape for Open Air Centers
ICSC's OAC Summit 2019
I just returned from ICSC's OAC Summit, which was held in Austin last week. For those how have not yet attended this conference, the OAC is not a deal making conference like many other ICSC conferences. Rather, the OAC is a relationship building and information sharing event, attended largely by...
New Payment Structures for a New Age
We’ve written about changes in the way goods are bought and sold, from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce. But what about how goods are being paid for? As the retail landscape shifts to digital terrain, retailers would be wise to think about how they accept payments to suit new ways of...
Recycling the Big Box
Retailers shuttered a record amount of brick-and-mortar store space in 2018, shattering the previous record set in 2017, and big box stores were the largest contributors to the empty space. Iconic brands, such as Sears, Macy’s, J.C. Penney, Toys "R" Us, Inc., Bon Ton and Lord & Taylor all...
Second Chances – Embattled Retailers Look to the Next Chapter for Their Brands
What’s old is new again. The intellectual property of legacy brick-and-mortar retailers is increasingly being repurposed for decidedly modern ventures. Although the fate of Toys "R" Us, Inc. has captured the most media attention, a number of prominent retailers have begun to repurpose and revitalize their brands in a...
2018 Holiday Sales
We hope everyone had a terrific holiday season and the new year is off to a great start! In our first post for the year, we wanted to share some terrific insights on 2018 holiday sales analytics from Retail Dive’s Kaarin Vembar . U.S. holiday sales grew 5.1% this...
Not Just Fun and Games: The Demise of Toys "R" Us, Inc. and the Changing Face of Retail
This year marks the first Christmas in modern memory without Toys "R" Us, Inc. The loss of the international toy seller leaves billions of dollars in toy sales up for grabs, and its slow and steady decline may serve as a catalyst for retailers to evolve and stay relevant...
The 2018 ICSC New York Deal Making Conference and The Emergence of Digital
The ICSC New York Deal Making Conference (“NYDMC”) was held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center from December 4 – 6. NYDMC is ICSC’s second largest conference, with about 10,000 in attendance this year. The conference kicked off with Professional Development Day. One highlight was the Hidden Biases of...
Year-End Trademark Audits Ensure Complete Brand Protection
With the end of the year approaching and the holiday shopping season in full swing, now is an ideal time for brand owners to audit their trademark portfolios. A trademark audit is an excellent tool for ensuring brands are adequately protected for the full scope of goods and services...
Happy Thanksgiving from Goulston & Storrs
We proudly present a holiday greeting from the children of Goulston & Storrs. Please click to view their festive holiday artwork.
Three Trends Driving Consumer Behavior in the Retail Real Estate Business
Goulston & Storrs partners Nancy Davids, Matt Epstein, Karen O’Malley and David Rabinowitz recently sat down with Forbes to discuss how changes in consumer behavior continue to drive evolution in the retail real estate business. The group identified three key trends through a collaborative discussion with Forbes contributor Richard Kestenbaum...
Counterfeits in the Digital Marketplace
Counterfeiting has moved beyond high-priced luxury goods to low-cost everyday items. Many of these fake products pose real dangers: face masks with arsenic ; phone adapters that can electrocute you ; computer chargers that fry your hardware ; batteries that blow up . These counterfeits infiltrate online marketplaces, where...
Protecting the Popular Brand: Considerations to Avoid Genericide
When it comes to trademark registration, there is such a thing as being too popular. Marks such as Aspirin, Fiberglass, Zipper and Flip Phone became so ubiquitous that they were found to be generic—a commonly used name or description of a kind of product. When a trademark becomes so...
Banner Year Expected For Holiday Retail Sales
This week’s news of former retail giants Sears and Kmart filing for bankruptcy is bound to spur headlines about the death of retail in the U.S. However, multiple forecasts predict that robust 2018 holiday shopping will result in an increase in both in-store and online holiday sales as compared...
On the Origin of Retail: An Evolutionary Analysis
“Retail Apocalypse!” “Amazon Takeover!” “Goodbye, Brick-and-Mortar!” These reflect the flavor of headlines these past few years: one of a retail Armageddon, or the end as we know it of brick-and-mortar. While several prominent retailers have turned to bankruptcy and store closures, research demonstrates that this doomsday hype is somewhat overblown. Statistics indicate...
Augmented Retail – The Use of Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality to Enhance the Customer Shopping Experience
As competition between brick-and-mortar stores and online shopping continues, retailers with physical stores are using cutting edge technologies to offer unique shopping experiences and added service to consumers. One type of technology that is being used in brick-and-mortar stores is artificial intelligence. Amazon, arguably one of the most disruptive...
Co-working and the Rapidly Changing Office Landscape
The anxiety of the death of retail has given way to the retail renaissance. Experiential retail draws the shopper in for entertainment, pop-up stores capture the shoppers’ curiosity as they stroll past a storefront or see their friends’ posts on Instagram, and showroom retail gives the hesitant online shopper...
One Wild Ride: The Rise of Dockless Bike Share Programs
Bike shares have been around for several years, but the newest iteration of the two-wheeled trend is causing concern among local government officials and citizens alike. Beyond questions of profitability and durability, dockless transit share models raise questions about what the future of commerce looks like. Dockless bikes and...
New Massachusetts Trade Secret Laws Effective October 1, 2018
The retail industry closely guards customer and distribution lists, the software and code for the operation of its websites and downloadable mobile apps, and, in many cases, algorithms used to evaluate and monitor sales trends. In many cases, these valuable assets are not protected by patent, trademark or copyright law. As...
Down But Not Out: Using Showrooms to Revamp Brick and Mortar Retail
Recent trends such as pop-ups suggest that consumers and retailers alike are not prepared to give up on brick and mortar stores, but that they are looking for more creative alternatives to the traditional arrangement. Clothing retailers have begun exploring use of showroom-style spaces to revitalize and reframe the shopping...
Updates to California Proposition 65 Affect Retailers and their Suppliers
On August 30, 2018, significant changes to California’s Proposition 65 (“Prop 65”) warning regulations take effect. In the retail context, Prop 65 requires businesses with 10 or more employees to warn individuals in California about products containing certain listed chemicals “known to the State of California to cause cancer...
Sales Tax Holidays: Serious Savings or Serious Stunt?
This past Friday, consumers across Massachusetts were pleasantly surprised with news of the last-minute approval by the Baker administration of a weekend sales tax holiday. Despite local retailers griping about the eleventh hour prep involved with planning, stocking, staffing and marketing such an event, consumers were rewarded with savings...
On Retaildential Densification: Unpacking the Jargon and Trends of Adding Residential Uses to Shopping Centers
Retail follows rooftops. Few real estate adages are more axiomatic. Increasingly, however, the reverse is becoming true, and rooftops, or residential uses, are cozying up to retail . We’ve written previously that residential developers are increasingly finding shopping centers to be an irresistible tenant amenity . Whether residential uses...
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