Finance & Capital Management

A few days after announcing a new fulfillment center in Edgerton, Kansas, Amazon.com is unveiling plans for another new center that will serve customers a little further west.

Amazon plans to open a seventh California fulfillment center in San Bernardino, where the company launched its fulfillment center in the state in 2012. The retailer currently employs more than 12,000 full-time hourly associates at its six existing California locations and says it will hire more than 1,000 full-time employees in the new San Bernardino facility.

Claire's Stores blamed currency exchange rates and store cloures for its decrease in revenue in the fourth quarter.

The specialty retailer said that for the period ended Jan. 30, net sales were $402.6 million, a decrease of $9.8 million, or 2.4% compared to the fiscal 2014 fourth quarter. The company said the decrease was attributable to an unfavorable foreign currency translation effect of non-U.S. net sales, the effect of store closures, decreased shipments to franchisees and a 0.2% decrease in same-store sales.

Extreme-value tween and teen retailer Five Below enters a new market on April 1, with the opening of three stores in Louisiana.

“Entering Louisiana is an important step as we continue to expand our rapidly growing footprint across the country,” said Joel Anderson, CEO of Five Below, which operates 444 stores in 27 states.

The stores in Louisiana are located in the towns of Covington, Lafayette, and Slidell. They are included in the 85 new locations Five Below has planned for 2016. In 2015, the chain opened 71 stores.

If the major suppliers of soft goods such as clothing and accessories to retail stores are a bellwether of the economy, then the coming months are looking to provide a jolt as 75% of these suppliers expect retail sales to significantly outpace the gross domestic product for the spring and summer shopping season.

That’s one of the major findings of a new survey conducted by Capital Business Credit.

Former Walgreens and Tyson Foods executive Wade Miquelon was named CFO at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores.

Jo-Ann said as CFO Miquelon would oversee the retailer’s finance organization, real estate, information technology and general counsel.

As it moves to distance itself from the turbulence that marked its past two years, American Apparel Inc. has named three apparel industry executives to its revamped board of directors.

The retailer, which emerged from bankruptcy protection in February, appointed Paul R. Charron, former CEO of Liz Claiborne, as chairman, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Following a record performance in 2015, Foot Locker has become the newest member of the S&P 500 index, which bodes well for the performance of the company’s share price.

After the close of trading on Friday, April 1, Foot Locker will replace oil and gas equipment services provider Cameron International as the newest constituent in the S&P 500 index, according to a statement by S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a part of McGraw Hill Financial. A spot on the S&P 500 index opened up after Cameron was acquired by Schlumberger Ltd.