How Vacant Spaces Are Becoming Pop-Up Opportunities For Landlords, Retailers

In a hot job market, retailers are offering up a host of perks — like $500 gift cards, vacation prizes, and special shopping days with extra discounts — to potential hires this holiday season. With unemployment below 4 percent, finding workers to fill the more than 700,000 seasonal job openings has become a difficult task. But the landscape left by struggling retailers is also creating new opportunities for property owners and entrepreneurs, an expert explained to CNBC recently. In turn, retailers like Kohl’s and Target have gotten creative about how to attract seasonal talent, “offering perks… discounts and things to get the best labor in stores,” Stacey Widlitz, SW Retail President told CNBC’s “On the Money” in an interview. Adding to that pressure is Amazon – which will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour starting November 1. The pay hike, combined with “significant” holiday discounts, could take a toll on retail profits this season, Widlitz predicted. Read more at CNBC.