According to Michael Wiener, CEO of Excess Space Retail Services, during the depth of the recession many publicly traded chains were hesitant to announce they were closing stores because they feared Wall Street’s reaction. Now that those same chains are starting to slowly expand again, they feel more comfortable putting out store closing announcements. And the industry should get ready to see more of those in the coming months.

“I think that is a sign of things actually starting to become normal again,” Wiener says. “Stores open, stores close. When stores close [mainly] through bankruptcy or liquidation, those are recessionary times.”

This view may seem counterintuitive, but it’s in keeping with the trend of retailers optimizing their store portfolios to ultimately become healthier companies. What do the rest of you think about an increase in store closing announcements?

McArthur Glen executives say that because of the difficulty of developing projects in Europe, where the approvals process can take years, they would like to expand into Canada and the U.S. They claim they have no plans to take on the giants of American real estate, but if possible, would like to put their name on the map if appropriate development sites (or development partners) come their way.

A story in today’s Wall Street Journal points out that Wal-Mart, which has been working on its 20,000-sq.-ft. to 40,000-sq.-ft. urban Walmart Express stores, has been selling the same merchandise in those stores as in its regular supercenters.

The company wants to do the same in the U.S. At Wal-Mart’s annual meeting last June, U.S. stores chief Bill Simon said he would like the Express Stores “to deliver the same experience that a supercenter can deliver, only in 15,000 square feet.”

Problem is Wal-Mart has taken that statement quite literally, said Leon Nicholas of the consulting firm Kantar Retail.

“Wal-Mart can’t pull itself away from a supercenter mind-set,” he said. “Just look at the shelves. It is just absurd to see a dozen kinds of jelly or peanut butter when a shopper just wants to get in and out of the store quickly.”

As a result, the company still doesn’t have any plans to launch Walmart Express stores across the country, as the few stores it has opened remain in test mode.

According to the MetroWest Daily News:

Longtime drama teacher Maura Morrison really had no idea the can of worms she was opening in January when she suggested a scene for an improvised song during a routine exercise with her Drama 2 class.

She told students to belt out a tune about the frustration one feels when he or she is stuck in the 12-item-or-less line with someone in front of them conspicuously sporting mounds of groceries.

“I was really kind of immune to the whole Wegmans thing,” she admitted, since she lives in Concord and doesn’t frequent the store.

Her students were so enamored with the idea of singing about Wegmans that she also threw the idea out to her Advanced Drama class, which normally does a short 20-minute production on a Friday in the school’s smaller black box theater.

After weeks of brainstorming ideas, however, the group decided to put on a full-on musical, and things just kind of snowballed from there.

Here’s the brochure posted on the school’s website. About 15 employees from the local Wegmans plan to attend the show this evening.

Whole Foods, eat your heart out!

Superdry is celebrated for housing its collections in uniquely designed retail environments. Times Square will be no exception, featuring oversized jam jar chandeliers, as well as triple patchwork tables made from reclaimed wood and an extensive use of raw steel. New design innovations never before seen in Superdry’s U.S. stores will include an industrial bomb light chandelier made from British factory lights salvaged from the 1940’s, bespoke cubby-style denim cabinetry, vetrine mannequin display units and a dedicated area to the brand’s leather and premium footwear collection.

Simon, which controls the largest regional mall portfolio and the largest outlet centers portfolio in the U.S., in addition to numerous overseas properties, is the only real estate company listed on Standard & Poor’s 100 index, a list which includes such global giants as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

During GGP’s first quarter earnings call, Mathrani told analysts:

“I like the malls, and I’m sure if they come to market we’d hope to be able to participate in attempting to buy the ‘A’ malls.”

This proclamation comes a day after CEO of Starwood Capital Group, which recently invested about $1 billion in Westfield malls, explained that it’s not in the market for a large mall portfolio.

Vornado’s assets include 14 malls, among them Kings Plaza in Brooklyn and Monmouth Mall in Eatontown, N.J.

Thomson Reuters, which tracks 20 retail chains, reports that its same-store sales index for April rose just 0.8 percent. Analysts were predicting an increase of 1.5 percent for the month.

ICSC’s tally of 22 retailers showed an increase of 0.6 percent in same-store sales. Drug stores had a particularly bad month, with a sales decrease of 4.1 percent. Luxury stores performed the best, posting growth of 5.8 percent. Apparel retailers were somewhere in between, with growth of 2.2 percent.

The blog RetailSails, which looks at results from 21 retailers, reported growth of 0.8 percent. But its authors believe there is still reason for optimism:

There was a significant drop-off in foot traffic after Easter, and because of the earlier Easter and Mother’s Day falling later this year than last, a lull in activity that seemed to affect the majority of retailers.

However, the combined March-April period (excluding Walgreen) continued to show positive momentum, and higher gas prices have yet to have a significant impact. We are seeing a lot more full-priced selling of apparel and seasonal merchandise in the first quarter compared to heavy promotional activity over the holiday season, which we expect will help bolster first quarter margins.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Starwood CEO Barry Sternlicht explains the reasons the firm wanted a stake in the Westfield portfolio: some of the malls are the dominant properties in their markets, plus Starwood hopes to rework the debt on the assets, given the low interest rate environment. The firm will also try to increase sales at the centers by bringing in more food and entertainment tenants.

But:

“We can add additional malls to the portfolio, but this is a one-off,” Sternlicht said in a Bloomberg Television interview from the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. “If we don’t buy another one, fine. If we find something good, that is fine too.”

He later added that Starwood is happy to stick with properties the major mall REITs no longer want to hold.

According to Rick Federico, company chairman and CEO:

“We are confident that being a private company will provide us with greater flexibility to focus on our long-term strategic plan of elevating our guest experience, enhancing our value proposition, growing traffic and improving the performance of our brands.”

In recent months, restaurants as a group have been one of the bright lights in the retail sector, expanding at a brisker pace than other retail tenants.