Top Story

• Anaheim's renovated Packing House set to open doors
  Anaheim, Calif., is about to introduce the renovated Packing House, a nearly 100-year-old structure that is part of the Center Street Promenade. It will open in the spring, featuring 20 to 25 restaurants and food shops that focus on artisan or vegetarian products. Los Angeles Times (tiered subscription model) (11/3)

	Retail Properties Available for Auction Online Properties include Shopping Centers, Restaurants, Supermarkets, Showrooms, Malls, and Units in metro plazas. View all retail properties available for auction. Featured Property: Retail center in Lakewood, CO. Starting Bid: $750,000. 60% Occupancy. 12K + SF, view more property details here.

Industry Tracker

• GTC to sell three Romanian retail centers
  An international private investor is acquiring three retail centers in Romania from Israeli real estate developer Globe Trade Centre. GTC is selling these assets because they are smaller and the developer wants to focus on larger properties with international tenants. Balkans.com (Serbia) (11/5)

• Dubai's 24-hour Eid draws mixed response
  Retail centers in Dubai that participated in the 24-hour Eid shopping experience reported mixed results from the concept. Restaurants, coffee shops and cinemas benefited from the 24-hour weekend openings but traffic for retailers was more muted. Gulf News (United Arab Emirates) (11/3)

Retail News

• How Sandy will affect supply chains for the holidays
  Hurricane Sandy's effects may be felt throughout the holiday shopping season, as retailers struggle with delivery delays and possible canceled orders as a result of closed ports and shipping terminals, gas shortages and closed roads. "We are now coming into the cutoff for seasonal orders for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays," said Paul Tsui, chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Freight Forwarding and Logistics. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (11/4)

• Report: Retail jobs increase with higher spending
  U.S. consumers are growing more confident, a trend showing up in higher sales and retail hiring, analysts say. Auto retailers set a two-year high in job growth and home furnishing stores have added about 7,000 employees in the past three months, reversing recession-era cuts, as rising home sales drove higher furniture sales. USA Today (11/4)

• Retailers cut costs with digital receipts
  A growing number of retailers including Macy's, Whole Foods, Nordstrom and Gap are discovering they can boost their bottom lines by offering customers the option of receiving a digital receipt via e-mail instead of the traditional paper version. USA Today (11/3)

• Major retailers sign on to fight swipe-fee settlement
  Lawyers for about 1,200 retailers and trade groups filed briefs in U.S. District Court late last week, urging the judge to reject the $7.25 billion settlement offer proposed by Visa and MasterCard. Retail chains including Target, Macy's, Wal-Mart and Saks joined NRF in filing separate briefs in the case. Women's Wear Daily (subscription required) (11/2)

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by ICSC SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• LaSalle Investment Management closes on Nashville retail center (American City Business Journals)

• Grocery-anchored retail portfolio trades for $175M (CoStar Group)

• Inland REIT closes on Dallas retail center for $39.3M (CoStar Group)

• Retail slowly comes back to life after Superstorm Sandy (SCT Newswire)

• Retailers welcome back consumers after Sandy (USA Today)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Finance & Economics

• Election winner could reap rewards of strengthening economy
  The U.S. economy appears to be strengthening and likely will continue to do so regardless of who wins Tuesday's election, analysts say. Growth could tick up to 4% by 2014 and 2015, predicts Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics. "The die is cast for a much stronger recovery," he said. Bloomberg (11/4)

Business Best Practices

• Business owner forgoes pay in favor of growth
  Once Shereen de Rousseau's jewelry business began to take off, she started to have a hard time meeting orders and wasn't able to devote as much time as she would like to designing collections and pursuing new business opportunities. She resolved her problem by hiring employees -- and sacrificing a year's salary to do so. The move seems to have paid off and she expects this year's sales to be 50% higher as compared to 2011. "Sales are increasing enough to enable me to pay myself again," she said. The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (tiered subscription model) (11/2)

SmartQuote

Mere longevity is a good thing for those who watch life from the sidelines. For those who play the game, an hour may be a year, a single day's work an achievement for eternity." --Gabriel Heatter, American radio commentator