Retailers

Retailers are going all-out to lure shoppers on Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving traditionally is the biggest shopping day of the season, and this year retailers are viewing it as a harbinger of whether consumers are ready to break out of a years-long spending slump spurred by the recession. The Glendale Galleria, home to anchors including Target, Nordstrom, Macy's and JCPenney and more than 200 shops, will open early and offer a host of deals. Some Galleria retailers, including the Disney Store, Aeropostale and the Children's Place, will open as the clock strikes midnight.

CITY HALL — In a unanimous vote on Tuesday the council stepped up the city's ability to keep retailers from selling tobacco products to minors. The ordinance, which goes into effect July 1, requires local retailers to obtain a license from the city to sell tobacco products, said Terre Hirsch, assistant community development director and administrator for License and Codes Services. The $235 license must be renewed annually and can be suspended or revoked if retailer is caught selling tobacco illegally, Hirsch said.

A paradigm shift has occurred, offering an alternative to a former way of doing business. Many current retailers in the pet industry are embracing the opportunity to help animals in need by working with rescue groups, shelters or holding adoption events at their store rather than selling pets from high-volume breeders (aka puppy mills). Small business owners are opening pet boutiques that offer adoptable dogs, cats, rabbits, etc., while offering great services. As more people are aware of the connection between puppy mills and pet stores, it seems irresponsible for consumers and retailers to support a cruel and inhumane breeding industry when so many healthy, adoptable pets die at local shelters for no reason other than space.

COMMISSIONER'S REPORT The council postponed a report from Burbank-GlendalePasadena Airport Authority Commissioner Charlie Lombardo regarding the authority's Monday meeting. WHAT IT MEANS The item was removed from the agenda in order to maximize meeting time in light of the fact that Council Chambers were overflowing with residents attending the meeting for a public hearing on a proposed Whole Foods Market in the Rancho District. TOBACCO LICENSING ORDINANCE The council voted unanimously to codify an ordinance that will require retailers who sell tobacco products to obtain a vendor permit from the city.

Hip youth retailers to open in Burbank EQ3, a gallery offering furniture from retailers like Urban Outfitters, Active, O My Sole and Skyblupink, will open in Downtown Burbank this winter in the space formerly occupied by Book City. The store's motto regards "furniture as fashion" and will feature products for living, dining, sleeping and working. The store is scheduled to open in time for the holiday season. Palliser Furniture, Canada's largest manufacturer of assembled home furniture, began the EQ3 concept in 2001.

Ryan Carter Call it the "day after" at shopping hubs throughout the city. Streets and parking lots were congested with shoppers frantically looking for a place to park Friday. At Media City Center, mall walkways and checkout lines gradually swelled with consumers looking for a good deal and those attempting to return what they might have thought were good deals. Retailers looked for a chance to finish up the year with a boost to their profits while clearing year-end inventories.

Ben Godar The City Council is considering an ordinance to regulate tobacco retailers as a way to curb the sale of cigarettes to minors. Under the proposed ordinance, discussed by the council and city staff Tuesday night, merchants would be required to secure a license in order to sell tobacco products. Elaine Pease, senior license and code services inspector, said local legislation would allow the city to issue fines and possibly revoke the licenses of retailers who repeatedly sell tobacco products to underage customers.

I scratch my head wondering if the mall developers and our Community Development people really know what's needed to attract the shoppers they so desperately want. Giving the mall a "face-lift," as a Leader article describes ("Mall improvements need tenants' OK," May 17), seems to be a superficial Band-Aid to the real problem: How to attract a better class of tenants into the mall. Attracting the right tenants will, in turn, attract the shoppers.

Jackson Bell Since Burbank Empire Center opened in November 2001, several of the center's stores and restaurants are exceeding projections. But some residents and retailers are feeling the side effects of success. Panda Express and Outback Steakhouse are topping their parent companies in franchise sales, and major retailers Target and Lowe's are in the top 10% of sales for their respective companies, according to Ben Reiling, president of Zelman Development Co., the site developer.

Two new retailers will soon move into the Burbank Town Center, filling large voids left by Circuit City and Mervyns after the two stores filed for bankruptcy in 2008. Burlington Coat Factory will take over the former Mervyns space, while an Ashley Furniture HomeStore will occupy the former Circuit City storefront. Burlington Coat Factory, a national chain specializing in brand-name clothing and housewares, is slated to open the first week in November, said Tom Kelly, regional vice president for the company.

Burbank this week joined the growing list of cities that have banned the retail sale of pets, but built in a six-month grace period for existing pet stores. Under the ban adopted by the City Council Tuesday, pet shops in Burbank can only obtain cats and dogs from animal shelters or rescues. During the six-month grace period, pet shops are required to obtain the animals from breeders licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and must post the name, address and license number of the breeder, as well as information on how the consumer could trace the animal's origin.

A paradigm shift has occurred, offering an alternative to a former way of doing business. Many current retailers in the pet industry are embracing the opportunity to help animals in need by working with rescue groups, shelters or holding adoption events at their store rather than selling pets from high-volume breeders (aka puppy mills). Small business owners are opening pet boutiques that offer adoptable dogs, cats, rabbits, etc., while offering great services. As more people are aware of the connection between puppy mills and pet stores, it seems irresponsible for consumers and retailers to support a cruel and inhumane breeding industry when so many healthy, adoptable pets die at local shelters for no reason other than space.

Walmart was dealt a setback this week in its efforts to open a store in Burbank when the judge hearing a lawsuit filed by three local residents to block the store's construction was reassigned just days before a hearing to schedule a trial. Just how much of a delay the reassignment of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones - who will now act as supervising judge of budget planning and administration for the court system - will cause is not certain. But Jones is one of six judges who hear cases involving the California Environmental Quality Act, which is one of the issues at the center of the Walmart case.

Speaking as a resident of Burbank and someone who is accustomed to believing that we, the consumers, should have choices I am startled and outraged about the delays in approving the new Walmart in my neighborhood. What I really resent is having our choices dictated by what I consider outside groups with agendas that have nothing to do with me Here you have a big building left empty for whatever reason by Great Indoors, and we consumers were essentially promised a new retailer to take its place.

It's 8 a.m. Sunday and John Palyok, general manager of a Best Buy store in Burbank, is brandishing a $19.99 Dynex HDMI cable like a battle standard. A group of 50 employees, mostly in their 20s, gather around him, gulping coffee and nodding slowly. "It's about speed, velocity and execution," bellowed Palyok, his voice echoing through the store's cavernous, 45,000-square-foot interior. "They, need, need this HDMI cable," Palyok said, slicing the thin blue box through the air like a battle-ax.

Burbank has initiated a series of funding deals to keep IKEA - a top sales-tax revenue generator - within city limits. The Swedish furniture retailer - a retail powerhouse in Burbank for more than two decades - has outgrown its current building has been looking for about a decade to expand its operations, said IKEA spokesman Joseph Roth. “Parking is challenging, the loading zone is challenging, the store itself is too small,” he said. The retailer already has its eye on a property - located at 805 South San Fernando Boulevard - that is twice the size of its current location, but it's occupied by Western Studio Service and a number of office tenants.

Good morning, readers. Today is Friday, October 26. What can you expect from an apartment in North Hollywood? Cheaper rent than Silverlake and vertical blinds , Curbed L.A . reports from a recent rent survey. Meanwhile, prices for homes in the Valley increased 8 percent last month , according to the Daily News . Los Angeles is joining other cities in banning retail shops from selling pets , reports the L.A. Times . A Woodland Hills couple who work in the entertainment industry cooked up a plot for their popular Halloween haunted house.

This is in regard to the proposal to ban the retail sale of dogs and cats in Burbank. Best Friends Animal Society wholeheartedly supports this proposal. Pet mills supply nearly 100% of U.S. pet stores. In these factory-like facilities, profit and maximum productivity take priority over the health and welfare of the animals. Pet stores that obtain their animals from mills are not an asset to the community. There are frequent reports of these animals having congenital or communicable diseases that cause heartache for unsuspecting customers who believe they are buying a pet from the best source possible.

Volunteers teamed up with kids Tuesday morning in Burbank and Glendale to help them buy new shoes, clothes and supplies for school at Target. The fourth annual shopping spree at the Empire Center was part of a partnership between Target and the Salvation Army, for which the national retailer gives $1 million in gift cards for 12,000 children and teens. Each participant was given an $80 gift card to spend in one hour with Disney employees and members of Burbank Sunrise Rotary and Noon Kiwanis.

Momentum is expected to build at a pet adoption event this weekend in support of a proposed ban on the sale of commercially bred dogs and cats in Burbank. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the parking lot behind Handy Market, 2514 W. Magnolia Blvd., where organizers will gather signatures in support of an ordinance that's slated to go before the Burbank City Council on Aug. 28 that, if approved, would prohibit the sale of animals that come from puppy mills and other retail sources.