Eddie Bauer's Bankruptcy, Ruehl Folds, Apple's Success, Battle at Children's Place, (Wednesday's News & Notes)

Here are some news and notes on retail and retail real estate from around the Web today.

• The big news of the day was Eddie Bauer's bankruptcy. In addition, Abercrombie & Fitch is shuttering the Ruehl concept. You can see how that affects the store closure count for the year in a post from earlier today.
• George Whalin raves about Apple's continued success. Specifically, Whalin writes about Apple's new store design.

  The most recent move is to a new store design. The first of the new stores recently opened in Scottsdale, Arizona. Visually spectacular, with a 75-foot-long skylight, the glass front and rear allows people to see all the way through the store. It is unlikely they will be able to do the same in most of their other stores, but it certainly adds to this eye-catching design.

• The New York Times' DealBook wrote of a brewing battle at Children's Place. It's former CEO began a proxy contest last month to place three candidates on the company's board. Current management, naturally, is resisting.
• TWICE--that's the cleverly named "This Week In Consumer Electronics"--writes up Best Buy's radical store remodel plans. Its planning to "alter its store layout to emphasize services and test new product categories." Interestingly, a Best Buy at 23rd and 6th Ave. in New York City recently shifted some things around. I wonder if that was a test of this new layout.
• RichmondBizSense reported on a recent Urban Land Institute event where speakers said that commercial real estate is far from recovering.
• Have some extra space in your mall parking lot? Call JetBlue.

  It has launched a new campaign in the parking garages of two malls - in Northern Virginia and Los Angeles - with installations meant to bring the in-flight experience to life. The installations include with in-flight monitors and airplane seats, all set in an environment meant to reproduce the feeling of being in the clouds.