Consumer Affairs & Relations

Worse than expected second quarter sales results at Dick’s Sporting Goods sparked new consumer spending concerns and prompted the company to lower its full year profit forecast.

Dicks said sales for the quarter ended August 3, increased 6.6% to $1.5 billion, however same store sales fell 0.4%, versus a planned 2% to 3% increase, when adjusted for a 53rd week in 2012. Profits for the period totaled $84.2 million, or 67 cents a share, compared to $53.7 million, or 43 cents a share.

In the 1980s, animated public service commercials featuring McGruff the Crime Dog exhorted viewers that: “Together, we can take a bite out of crime.” Two decades later, department store retailer J.C. Penney is taking that spirit of teamwork to cooperatively use technology to combat retail crime in the greater Chicago area.

NEW YORK — Canadian shoppers aren’t wowed by Target Corp., according to a customer-satisfaction rating survey by Forum Research. As reported in The Globe and Mail, the survey ranked Target at the bottom of a list of major retailers operating in Canada. (Satisfaction as measured by the survey relates to service, prices and/or merchandise offering.)

Over all, Target scored a mean 2.7 out of 4, compared with Costco’s 3.5, Wal-Mart’s 3.1 and a 3.2 average.

Strengths in several merchandise categories, including women’s contemporary and advanced designer apparel; fragrances; children’s apparel; and men’s accessories, shoes and contemporary apparel contributed to a comparable store sales increase of 1.5% in the second quarter ended August 3 at Saks Incorporated.

New York -- A federal judge in Denver gave Hollister Co. until Jan. 1, 2017, to modify its store entrances to make them wheelchair accessible, according to an advocacy group for the disabled, at a rate of 77 stores per year, the Associated Press reported.  

The entrances of some Hollister locations are designed to resemble a front porch, complete with steps. 

Minneapolis -- Target announced plans to open a store in King of Prussia, Pa., in July 2014. 

The new store, located on West DeKalb Pike, will be part of the Valley Forge Shopping Center. This will be the first Target store in the city of King of Prussia.

“Pennsylvania continues to be a strong market for Target, and we’re eager to expand our presence in the state this year,” said Samir Shah, Target’s senior VP of stores, Northeast. 

The National Retail Federation and the Retail Association of Nevada hosted Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., at a retail roundtable discussion. More than a dozen community retailers and small business owners gathered to address the industry’s challenges and public policy priorities.

I think it’s exciting to watch retail going back downtown.
 
I remember shopping in big downtown department stores years ago, and I remember when the big retailers began their exodus to suburban malls leaving huge, sad-looking buildings behind.
 
But retail, as they say, follows rooftops, and the rooftops were springing up in suburbia and then further out in edge communities. Today, we all have a number of friends and acquaintances that commute for an hour or more in each direction every day.