Category: Restaurants
New York City Vaccine Mandate for Certain Indoor Activities
In early August 2021, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the Key to NYC , which requires patrons of indoor dining, indoor fitness and indoor entertainment to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Employees at such establishments must also be vaccinated. There is no exception to this vaccination mandate...
Last Minute Shifts to Last-Mile Delivery Centers: Considerations for Retail Landlords
Owners of shopping centers and other retail spaces are again increasingly looking to novel uses, including distribution and warehouse uses , sometimes called “fulfillment centers”, to fill growing vacancies. These emerging uses raise a number of potential legal issues. The retail industry is undergoing what appears to be a...
Court Partially Excuses Tenant’s Rent Obligations During COVID Shutdown
In the social and economic fallout from COVID, businesses are assessing how best to address their commercial relationships, especially where potentially insurmountable barriers to performance loom large. One clause that concerns performance impossibility has gained increasing recognition in this crisis. “Force majeure” contract clauses long have existed in contracts. Largely...
Coronavirus: Impact on the Retail Industry
Coronavirus Disease 2019 or “ COVID-19 ” continues to dominate national and international discussion. News outlets in Boston , New York , London , Mumbai , Rio de Janeiro , Tokyo , and every other city and town in the world continue to post and print stories related to spread of...
We’re Here for the Food Hall Party
Time to Eat, Drink and Socialize!If you haven’t eaten at a food hall yet… it is likely only a matter of time before you do. They are popping up all over the country and are gaining popularity. Unlike traditional mall food courts, food halls typically include higher end and trendy concepts all within one...
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...
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...
Credit Card Evolution: Goodbye John Hancock
For years, the signature requirement for completing a credit card transaction has felt something like an obsolete means of confirming a user’s identity . Effective this month, however, four of the country’s largest credit card providers: American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa, will no longer require a signature to...
Settlement Opens Door For Outer Borough Outlet Centers
In August 2017, Simon Property Group (“SPG”) and the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York (“NYAG”) entered into an Assurance of Discontinuance (the “Settlement”) regarding alleged anti-competitive effects of radius restrictions used by SPG in leases at the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets (“Woodbury Commons&rdquo...
Update: Tip Pooling by Restaurant Owners Remains in Flux
This past April, we reported on a recent Ninth Circuit ruling which upheld a 2011 Department of Labor (“DOL”) rule that prohibits restaurants from instituting tip-pooling arrangements that include both front-of-house staff that are customarily and regularly tipped (such as waiters, waitresses, bellhops, and service bartenders) and back-of-house staff...
Cannes Brick and Mortar Retail in the United States Make a Comeback?
2017 MAPIC Conference in Cannes, France Last week, a contingent from Goulston & Storrs attended the annual MAPIC conference in Cannes (pronounced “Can”), France for the seventh consecutive year. We expected to field questions about the challenges facing brick and mortar retailers in the United States as well as...
Robots Will Reshape – Not Replace – Retail Work
As we have discussed in earlier blog posts , rapid changes in the retail landscape due to the rise of e-commerce and a shift in customer’s interests from old-school, one-stop department store shopping to experiential retail, has led to a recent wave of retail bankruptcies and store closings. The...
A Nation of Shopkeepers
David Rabinowitz and Matt Epstein who, with Nancy Davids , co-chair Goulston’s Retail, Restaurant and Consumer Group , spent some time in London last month surveying the retail landscape. There are both similarities and differences between the US and UK markets. Of course, the impact of ecommerce on bricks and...
Give Me a Break: Break Me Off a Piece of That…Meal Kit?
Short on time and patience, consumers are jumping on the bandwagon of meal kits and meal kit delivery services, which have taken the retail food industry by storm. Meal kits and meal kit delivery services – such as, Plated , Blue Apron , HelloFresh and Purple Carrot – are...
Tip Pooling by Restaurant Owners-Remains in Flux
Restaurant owners with tipped employees should take note of several recent court cases which may affect their ability to cause restaurant employees to participate in “tip pooling,” particularly in instances where back-of-house employees are included in such tip pooling arrangements. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allows employers to...
The Ascendency of Accessibility: Surge in Website Lawsuits Continues
The proliferation of accessibility lawsuits under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has not abated. It is well-documented that ADA-related litigation increased by 37% from 2015 to 2016, which is symptomatic of long-term trends. Growth is fueled in part by litigants’ increased focus on internet-based technologies...
ICSC Mid-Atlantic Conference & Deal Making Recap
With seemingly all of the country’s attention focused on Washington DC lately, we snuck out of the District and across the Potomac River to National Harbor last week for ICSC's 2017 Mid-Atlantic Conference and Deal Making. The conference was very well attended, and the mood among attendees and presenters...
Upscale Food Halls—On Trend and On The Rise
The growth of high-end food halls is taking off around the country as consumers seek fast, fresh, high-quality, chef-driven meals with a local touch, and as landlords seek to cash in on the continued growth of fast-casual dining. These boutique-style, upscale food halls are modeled more after famous European...
Mobile Payments: Exciting but Unknown
Mobile payment options are no longer the wave of the future. They are already here. It was projected that there would be almost 450 million mobile payment users worldwide by the end of 2016. These users generated $60 billion in mobile payment sales in 2016 alone. Certain studies project...
The Power of Pop-ups: From Fad to Retail Mainstay
Pop-up stores or “flash retail” have graduated from passing trend to popular practice. Historically utilized for the sale of seasonal products (think temporary stores that only sell Halloween costumes), the pop-up has evolved into an attractive option for retailers of all shapes, sizes and experience. Smaller, emerging companies have...
Food For Thought: How Delivery-Only Food Service Is Impacting Retail Real Estate
Today’s consumer is a tricky one – she is impatient and demanding. She requires excellent service in the blink of an eye (or perhaps, more appropriately, in the swipe of a finger), and likes to eat meals made with high quality ingredients. Celebrity chefs have taken note. Chefs like...
Return of the Food Trucks – New Offerings vs. Old Favorites
It’s that time of year again: flowers are blooming on the Common, the Red Sox had their opening day, and the best parts about Boston summer have started to reappear. This year, however, many of Boston’s beloved food trucks almost did not. Food trucks began to really take off...
Bite Kite Rides into Town: Cambridge Start-Up Tests New Trends in Fast Food Delivery
Take-out customers want quality food without complication and want it fast – with an emphasis on fast. In a service market increasingly focused on instant gratification, fast food providers are striving to reinvent delivery services to meet the demands of customers who have very little time to spare but...
It’s Snowing (Again!) – What Responsibility Does a Landlord Have for Snow and Ice Removal?
After four major snowstorms have buried much of Massachusetts in more than six feet of snow, and with other areas of the country dealing with storms of their own, landlords nationwide are wondering how responsible they are for clearing and managing snow and ice that has accumulated in their...
What’s on the Menu? A Look at the New FDA Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR) Labeling Requirements
We recently reported in to our clients about a little-known element of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) that will require many QSRs (Quick Serve Restaurants) to provide specific calorie and nutrition information to their customers and on their menus. Mandated by the legislation, it was left to the Food...
When Fashion Met Style…Spin-Off Stores
Over the past few years, there has been a discouraging rash of mall vacancies and closings, as traditional department stores and retail chains have had to close shop, lick their wounds, and get back to the drawing board in hopes of reviving their brand names and regaining a foothold...
Would You Like Fries with that Sweater? Retailer and Restaurant Pairings
As retailers continue to embrace the omni channel retail experience, our blogging team explores consumer behavior behind the new trends. One topic we have followed lately is the convergence of retail and restaurants. For years restaurants have put roots down in highly-trafficked areas like shopping malls, tempting weary consumers...