Finance & Capital Management

Barnes and Noble Inc. saw a sharp decline in holiday sales in its Nook e-reader division, even as its retail segment showed small improvement.

The Nook segment (including digital content, devices and accessories), had sales of $56 million for the nine-week holiday period, decreasing 55% as compared to a year ago. Device and accessories sales were $28.5 million, a decrease of 68%. Digital content sales were $27.4 million, a decline of 25%.

Barnes & Noble is expected to spin off the Nook segment into a separate business in March.

Bartell Drugs has selected former REI executive Brian Unmacht as its new president.

Prior to joining the 63-store pharmacy retailer, Unmacht served as REI’s EVP and CEO. He has served as a member of Bartell Drugs’ board of directors since 2011.

Bartell Drugs’ chairman and CEO George D. Bartell said that filling the position at the family-owned company supports future succession plans as it celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2015. Bartell Drugs is the oldest and largest family-owned drug store chain in the United States.

Karenann Terrell, Walmart’s Chief Information Officer, is among a distinguished group of female executives singled out by Retailing Today sister publication Chain Store Age as The Top 10 Women in Tech.

Costco showed again in December why it’s the cream of the crop among warehouse club stores.

The Wash.-based retailer reported an increase of 8% in same store sales in the United States, excluding gasoline sales and foreign exchange. Same-store sales at international stores rose by 1%.

Net sales for the retailer rose 5% to $12.12 billion in December from $11.53 billion a year earlier.

Costco showed again in December why it’s the cream of the crop among warehouse club stores.

The Wash.-based retailer reported an increase of 8% in same store sales in the United States, excluding gasoline sales and foreign exchange. Same-store sales at international stores rose by 1%.

Net sales for the retailer rose 5% to $12.12 billion in December from $11.53 billion a year earlier.

Pacific Sunwear said it will lose less money in the fourth quarter than originally expected after its California lifestyle product assortment resonated with holiday shoppers and drove a 9% same store sales increase.

Macy’s announced a series of major operational and merchandising moves to accelerate its omnichannel approach while also releasing solid holiday sales.

New York -- For the second consecutive year, security ranks as the top spending priority of CIOs in an annual survey by PiperJaffray, with 75% of respondents expecting to increase spending in 2015, up from 50% last year.  

The results reflect Network (firewall) and endpoint security were the top two segments of the market expected to see an increase in spending.

Reston, Va. -- Retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers for the entire November-December 2014 holiday season totaled $53.3 billion, up 15% from the corresponding days last year.

Minneapolis -- Supervalu Inc.’s third-quarter profit more than doubled as the supermarket chain experienced sales growth in all three of its business segments. Its results beat analysts' expectations.

Supervalu reported an overall profit of $79 million for the quarter ended Nov. 29, up from $31 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 4.8% to $4.2 billion.