RETAIL NEWS

SEATTLE -- Bartell Drugs is taking outreach to a new level with its plan to distribute “flu kits” and flu shot vouchers on the streets of Seattle.

Bartell employees will join Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission Search and Rescue street team from 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 12 to distribute these materials in Seattle's downtown core, including the area known as “The Jungle” as well as the Chinatown-International district.

It won't be simple for Sears or Kmart to shutdown, as the country's malls and strip centers littered with at least 2,500 empty storefronts, Crain's reports.

According to Crain's, it will take years to find buyers for all the real estate Sears owns and leases -- especially at a time when department stores and other retailers are looking to shrink their footprint, not grow it.

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Target has announced plans to test vertical farms within select U.S. stores, according to Business Insider.

The popularity of vertical farming, an agricultural technique that involves growing plants indoors in precisely programmed conditions, is growing rapidly.

“Down the road, it's something where potentially part of our food supply that we have on our shelves is stuff that we've grown ourselves,” Casey Carl, Target’s chief strategy and innovation officer, told Business Insider.

WASHINGTON - The National Retail Federation announced earlier this week it expects sales in November and December, excluding autos, gas and restaurant sales, to increase a solid 3.6% to $655.8 billion — significantly higher than the 10-year average of 2.5% and above the seven-year average of 3.4% since recovery began in 2009.

Additionally, NRF is forecasting non-store sales to increase between 7% and 10% to as much as $117 billion.