Finance & Capital Management

Houston – Francesca’s Holding Corp. is still feeling the warmth of the holidays. The retailer is increasing its guidance for fourth quarter sales to between $103 million and $105 million, including a low-single-digit decrease in same-store sales.

Boston -- Gordon Brothers Group and Hilco Merchant Resources will begin going-out-of-business sales at all 287 Deb Shops retail locations nationwide beginning Jan. 9. Deb Shops, a Philadelphia-based women’s fashion discount retailer, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Dec. 4, 2014.  

Surging sales at Old Navy helped parent company Gap Inc. post an increase in same store sales for November and December.

Gap’s same store sales for the November and December holiday shopping season increased 3%.

For December alone, the figure rose 1%, slightly above Wall Street estimates for a 0.7% increase, according to Thomson Reuters.

E-commerce and Disney’s Frozen helped propel Books-A-Million’s holiday sales over Barnes & Noble’s.

Books-A-Million, the country’s second largest bookstore chain, reported that total sales for the nine-week period ended Jan. 3 were $129.2 million, an increase of 1.1% over the same period a year ago. Same store sales rose 1.2%, but excluding sales of e-reader devices comp sales were up 1.7% in the nine week period compared to the holiday season last year.

Teens will soon have fewer choices when it comes to shopping for the latest fashions.

Deb Shops announced it has won court approval to launch going-out-of-business sales that will culminate with the closing of nearly 300 stores.

“We thank our many customers and dedicated employees for their tremendous loyalty over the years and are very proud of our associates’ commitment to maintaining the high level of customer service we are known for throughout this transition,” said Dawn Robertson, CEO at Deb Shops.

As uncertainty continues to swirl around Bitcoin and its role in the future of payments, Overstock.com is rushing full-speed ahead in embracing the digital currency.

The online retailer has installed a Bitcoin ATM at its corporate headquarters in Salt Lake City. The ATM is accessible 24 hours a day and allows the public to convert U.S. dollars to Bitcoin, and Bitcoin to U.S. dollars.

Boot Barn’s efforts to expand its footprint may be paying off, as the western wear retailer reported net sales of approximately $130.5 million, compared to net sales of $115.4 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2014.

Fewer shoppers were in the mood to buy containers last fall, as the Container Store blamed its third quarter performance on lower customer traffic.

The company said same-store sales declined 3.5% in the third quarter that ended Nov. 29.

“We were not satisfied with our comparable-store sales and are working to fix it. Traffic has been the culprit, as the average customer transaction was up 2%,” Container Store Group CEO Kip Tindell said.

But, Tindell added, traffic turned positive in the fourth quarter.

Growth decelerated at Bed Bath & Beyond during the third quarter but the $1.3 billion the company spent buying back stock enabled it to achieve analysts’ earnings estimates.

Reuters is reporting a new complicating factor in the ongoing saga of efforts by Dollar Tree and Dollar General to buy Family Dollar.

Some 20 state attorneys general have joined the federal antitrust investigation of competing bids by Dollar General Corp. and Dollar Tree Inc. to buy Family Dollar Stores Inc., a development that potentially complicates the companies' efforts to win U.S. approval for a deal.

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