Consumer Affairs & Relations

St. Louis -- Brown Shoe Co. reported Friday that net income of the fourth quarter was $4 million, compared with a loss of $8.2 million in the year-ago period.

Sales rose to $640.2 million from $628.9 million.

For full year 2012, profit edged up to $27.5 million from $24.6 million. Sales increased to $2.59 billion from $2.58 billion.

KEARNEY, Neb. — The Buckle announced that net income for the fiscal quarter was $61.4 million, or $1.29 per share ($1.28 per share on a diluted basis), compared with $56.1 million, or $1.19 per share ($1.18 per share on a diluted basis) for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011. Net income for the fiscal year was $164.3 million, or $3.47 per share ($3.44 per share on a diluted basis), compared with $151.5 million, or $3.23 per share ($3.20 per share on a diluted basis) for the fiscal year ended January 28, 2012..

Gap Inc., Ebay, Safeway, Wegmans, Whole Foods, Costco, Target, Best Buy and OfficeMax were all named to Ethisphere Institute’s World’s Most Ethical Companies list.

The companies were chosen based on an evaluation of a questionnaire provided by Ethisphere to determine each company’s Ethics Quotient (EQ).

Companies were evaluated for their own ethics policies and enforcement of such policies, ethical track record and reputation in the market place, corporate governance, corporate responsibilities and culture of ethics.

CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif. — Teen retailer Hot Topic reported net income in the fourth quarter of $12.1 million, or 29 cents per share, compared with net income of $9 million, or 21 cents per share, for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011.

New York -- Retail spending in the United States rose a better-than-expected 1.1% in February, the highest increase since September, according to figures released Wednesday by the Commerce Department.

Sales, excluding gasoline, building materials and autos, rose 0.4%. Industry experts said that consumer spending is holding up even in the face of the higher payroll tax.

PHILADELPHIA — Sparks, a maker of custom retail fixtures, has appointed two new executives to their business development team.  Ilicia Manger and Jeffery Buttson bring a combined total of 35 years of retail fixture industry experience to the Sparks executive team.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Commerce reported that retail sales for the month of February rose by 1.1% seasonally adjusted month to month.

The newly released figures include nongeneral merchandise categories, such as automobiles, gas stations and restaurants; excluding those, sales rose 0.7%, while rising 0.5% unadjusted year over year. The National Retail Federation noted that sales beat estimates as consumers adapted and adjusted spending in response to higher gas prices and the payroll tax increase.

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. — Ulta Beauty has named Scott Settersten CFO and assistant secretary, effective immediately. Settersten will report to Dennis Eck, interim CEO.

Settersten has been acting CFO and assistant secretary since October 2012. He previously served as VP accounting since 2010 and was responsible for accounting, tax and external reporting. In that role, he also oversaw investor relations and worked closely with the audit committee and board of directors. He joined Ulta Beauty in January 2005 as director of financial reporting.