The Week In News, But Shorter
August 31 – September 06, 2026

A Weekly PropTech Newsletter bringing you industry updates from across the real estate spectrum

Ed note: This week’s edition is coming to you a day late after celebrating the Labor Day holiday yesterday in the U.S. We will return to our regularly scheduled Monday delivery next week.

Westfield Topanga in Los Angeles is transforming a portion of its traditional food court into “Topanga Social,” a curated, high-end dining destination aimed at modernizing the mall-eating experience. The six-month experiment, which will bring a rotating residency for celebrity chefs, branded food concepts and nostalgia-driven pop-ups through a partnership with Chain, reflects a broader push by mall owners to use limited-run attractions and experience-driven dining to generate repeat visits. Turning food spaces into experiential attractions that boost the overall value of a retail center, rather than just an amenity, falls in line with broader trends – though it must be said that this reminds us of something done at Westfield San Francisco more than 10 years ago. We’ll be watching to see how this trial goes!

This week we transition from back-to-school predictions to holiday predictions, and AI companies are working to make their mark in time for the season. We also got a read out on the impact of the World Cup, and why some retailers are now considering State Fairs over malls. Are you connected with us on LinkedIn? If not, you might not be clued into the upcoming events we’re speaking at!

Digital Meets Physical

Williams-Sonoma AI assistants drive customer engagement — and conversions [CXDive] Williams-Sonoma is using AI to take its high-touch customer service model to the next level. The company is tapping AI to improve the checkout experience and overall customer journey, strengthen product discovery and scale personalization across its brand portfolio.

How much of retail’s AI is really new? [SmartBrief] Many retailers struggle to distinguish between genuine innovation and rebranded legacy technology when evaluating new tools for AI in retail operations. To ensure investments deliver real value, companies must look beyond marketing claims and demand evidence that systems use fundamentally new approaches rather than simply applying traditional automation.

Anthropic launches AI agent blueprints for retailers ahead of holiday shopping season [Reuters] Artificial intelligence company Anthropic is giving retailers blueprints to build shopping and merchant agents on ‌Claude, it announced on Wednesday, as demand for internal and external conversational search tools expands ahead of the holiday shopping season.

OneRail launches AI platform with Nvidia for retailers to make faster delivery decisions [CNBC] Last-mile delivery company OneRail is launching a new platform with Nvidia to use AI to help retailers make faster and more efficient delivery decisions. The platform, called OmniStar, has already been deployed with a few customers. The rollout means smaller retailers will be better positioned to match the speed and efficiency of retail giants like Walmart and Amazon.

A Luxury Digital Retailer Brings Shopping to You [The New York Times] Unlike most e-commerce, where transactions are largely impersonal, Mytheresa pairs its biggest clients with dedicated personal shoppers and invites them to exclusive events around the world. The company also gives them access to Privé, a members-only section of its website offering exclusive products not available elsewhere.

The Home Depot extends AI assistance in local stores [RetailDive] The retailer expanded its AI shopping assistant, Magic Apron, to include localized store knowledge to help customers quickly find items, ask product-specific questions and get project advice.

PropTalk

How this Los Angeles mall is rethinking the food hall [Propmodo]A former Sears department store at a Los Angeles area mall has already been reinvented once as a sprawling food hall. Now owner Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield s converting part of its food emporium at the Westfield Topanga mall into a rotating residency for celebrity chefs, branded food concepts and nostalgia-driven pop-ups through a partnership with Chain.

State fairs are the hot new pop-up spot for brands like E.l.f. and Levi’s [ModernRetail] Patrick O’Keefe, chief integrated marketing officer at E.l.f. Beauty, is constantly on the hunt for “places and spaces” where other beauty brands aren’t showing up. A couple of years ago, one of the company’s agency partners, eGen, pitched E.l.f. on a “beauty desert” that it believed was worth paying.

Bain & Co.: U.S. holiday sales to exceed $1 trillion for first time [Chain Store Age] Growth in in-store sales is expected by Bain to remain in line with 2025 at 2.5% year-over-year, with the strongest performance predicted to come from the clothing and accessories segment, as well as from health and personal care products. Consumer survey respondents said they expect clothing (43%) to overtake groceries (37%) as their highest-spending category in the holiday season, with gift cards (36%) coming a close third.

Study: 2026 FIFA World Cup host cities saw select economic growth [Chain Store Age] Sporting goods chains and restaurants reaped the biggest benefits from the 2026 FIFA World Cup. That’s according to a new report, which examined retail and dining visitation patterns across the tournament’s 11 U.S. host markets. According to FIFA, 6.8 million fans attended matches across North America, with the event having an estimated $40.9 billion global economic impact.

How Percentage Rent Became a Software Problem — And Why It Took So Long to Solve [Propmodo] Percentage rent is one of the oldest concepts in commercial real estate. Retail landlords have used it for decades as a way to align their income with the performance of tenants. In theory, it is elegant. In practice, it has been one of the most persistently difficult lease obligations to calculate, audit, and enforce at scale.

Damis Holdings puts 50 properties up for sale [Chain Store Age] Damis Holdings has put 50 properties spanning 23 states up for sale across multiple asset classes that include retail, entertainment and hospitality. The disposition comes after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June. Damis is owned by brothers Michael and David Shabsels.