Walmart U.S. Apparel office relocates to Bentonville


In today's Walmart Memo -

In Walmart U.S., we're getting back to the basics of our business, and our customers and associates are noticing. Over the past year, we've renewed our focus on Every Day Low Costs and Every Day Low Prices in order to really deliver, and today we're taking another step in that effort.

Many of you will remember in early 2009 we announced that to make a play in fashion we moved our Apparel office to New York City in order to be at the "center of the fashion industry." What we've found since that time is our customers expect from us high-quality basics and fashion basics at great prices every day.

With the leadership of Lisa Rhodes, Senior Vice President, - Walmart U.S. Apparel Merchandising, we have been working on this strategy the past year and our customers are responding.  In fact, our sales trend in apparel is the best it's been in two years.

With that as a backdrop, we have decided to move the Apparel office from New York City back to Bentonville. When you consider our core strategy centered in basics and fashion basics, in order to execute, our offices do not need to be located in New York. Also roughly 40 percent of our apparel planning, replenishment and modular execution associates are in Bentonville today.

It just makes sense to unite our apparel efforts in one location.

The function will transition to Bentonville over the next few months, with the goal to be complete by Feb. 1. During this time, we are working with the associates in New York and hope to relocate as many as possible to
Bentonville.

A Differentiation of Triple Net Leases and Gross Leases

Written by:  Ida Fineberg, Broker & Co-Owner of Steve Fineberg & Associates

The Commercial Lease – it conjures images of clauses, conditions, timelines and COSTS.  The stipulations and conditions that ultimately become part of a lease are as varied and numerous as there are active leases.  One of the most important parts of a lease is costs/fees and who pays what – the lessor/owner or the lessee/tenant – either way this part of the lease is one that deserves a look.  Let’s look at the Tripe Net Lease.

All property owners have, for the most part, three costs which are part of owning property.  These costs are taxes (the government will always take its “fair share”), insurance (what? -  you want to own without protection?), and Common Area Maintenance (known as CAM and just think lobbies, elevators, landscape, maybe restrooms used by all tenants, etc.) .  

Gross Lease:  On the other side of this lease coin is  the gross lease wherein the owner/lessor  receives a bigger check from the lessee/tenant that includes costs of  taxes, insurance and CAM.  In the real world a majority of tenants prefer the Gross Lease rather than a Triple Net Lease because for them just writing one check takes care of the whole business rather than writing various checks for the cost of taxes, insurance, and CAM.  In other words, someone else takes care of the details. 

Triple Net Lease:  In a Triple Net Lease the owner receives a rent check that does  NOT  include the cost of taxes, insurance, and CAM.  In this scenario it is the tenant who would be responsible for the payment of these costs.  When an investor is looking to purchase income producing property, a preference is given to a building with triple net leases because the investor can more easily determine what the net income is in relation to the purchase price.

At the end of the day, it’s all about the structure of the lease.  Monetarily it is the same outcome for the owner/lessor. The bottom line is that the owner wants to cover the costs of these fees.  Not too difficult – its just common sense and good planning by all the parties.

Corporate Responsibility: Fighting Hunger in Northwest Arkansas

This past year we took some time to reflect and prioritize some issues that we felt were at the heart-strings of our organization.  Each day we have an opportunity to work alongside businesses and individuals who help make our community a better place - a place that continues to grow and flourish.  It is easy sometimes to forget that there are still many people in our community who really struggle, and although the agents and staff here at Steve Fineberg & Associates all contribute so much of their time and resources privately for various causes in our community, we realized we needed to do better organizationally.

As part of our committment to raising awareness and resources for the disadvantaged in our community, we have created a "Corporate Responsibility Mission Statement":

It is the mission of the agents and staff at Steve Fineberg & Associates Real Estate to participate in efforts to  become a  part of the energy  that  makes the communities  of Northwest Arkansas great places in which to live and prosper.  Steve Fineberg & Associates is committed to giving time and effort  through  involvement in various civic and charitable organizations in order to further contribute to making  Northwest Arkansas an exceptional area in which to live and work..

This year we have chose as an organization to give back to that we feel has a strong reputation in the community as a safe place where people can be loved and supported through fundamental resources that we all need that fights hunger and offers sustainable care - Samaritan Community Center.

For the month of October, our staff is committed to helping raise support through a "Food Drive to Benefit Samaritan Community Center".  We hope that by serving as a drop-site in Bentonville that we can increase awareness for their cause, and also help provide the physical resources of food through collecting at our office.

We plan to engage our neighbors and clients in helping support this great cause, but we need your help also.  Please help us stock the shelves by providing canned foods.  We will accept donations through the month of October - Monday through Friday from 8am-5pm.  Our office is located at 1400 S.E. Walton Blvd. in Bentonville (behind Krispy Kreme).