Randomly Noted

It makes sense that someone would dig deep back into a depression-era program to explore ways to get people spending again. Kmart and Sears have done just that by introducing a “Christmas Club” card that is like the old holiday savings programs banks sponsored.

The Kmart-Sears card allows you to save some money each week that builds toward that budget you’ve decided to set aside for holiday shopping. It’s a smart idea to budget this way. If you want to spend $500 over the holidays, it’s easier to set aside $41 a week than to take down the lump sum.

But here’s the rub.

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Agree Realty Outperforms DJIA Year-To-Date

The commercial real estate market has been especially hard hit this year across all segments. But retail, with high profile bankruptcies by Circuit City and Linens N’ Things, along with store scalebacks by companies like Starbucks, has been particularly stressed.

That’s why it is impressive how Agree Realty has performed. The company owns, manages and develops single tenant properties with 90% of its lease revenues connected to national tenants. Close to 30% is Walgreens, with another 30% connected to Borders. About 11% are Kmart stores. The bet in this portfolio is how well Borders and Kmart perform. And while that’s no certain thing, the overall portfolio for Agree Realty has done fairly well.

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