Finance & Capital Management

Midvale, Utah – Sportsman’s Warehouse Inc. is opening a store in Spokane, Washington, in early 2015. This location will be the first of eight planned stores that will open during 2015, making a total of 63 retail stores open and operating by the end of 2015.

Dallas - On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, has appointed Ward Whitworth as president of On The Border. The move follows the resignation of On The Border CEO Steve Clark, who has committed to stay on for a period of time in order to ensure a smooth transition to new leadership.

Washington, D.C. -- Slower-than-expected growth during the first half of the year caused the National Retail Federation to lower its retail sales forecast for 2014. NRF said it now expects sales will grow 3.6% in 2014, down from its earlier forecast of 4.1%. The group joined other industry experts in forecasting a pick-up in activity in the next five months.  

San Jose, Calif. – EBay Inc. is still planning to expand its operations in Russia despite U.S. sanctions against the country’s government. In public comments made in Moscow, EBay VP Wendy Jones said Russia is EBay’s top priority for expansion of its EBay Marketplaces division, and that eBay Marketplaces should go live in Russia in September.

Jones also said EBay doubled its Russian buyer base in 2013 and sold $425 million worth of goods there in 2012. Currently, Russian consumers make 90,000 EBay transactions per day.

Seattle – Starbucks is opening three new stores in Hanoi, Vietnam. The stores will add to Starbucks’ established Vietnam presence of eight stores in Ho Chi Minh City.

Starbucks opened the first of the three stores on July 23. All three will be located near shopping malls or office buildings. Starbucks is not publicly saying how many stores in Vietnam it ultimately plans to open. The company first entered the Vietnamese market in 2013.

Framingham, Mass. - Cumberland Farms, is launching its free SmartPay Check-Link Business payment program, which enables business owners to save 10 cents on every gallon of gas for their fleet of vehicles. SmartPay Business offers two ways to save – the SmartPay Business Card and the SmartPay Business Mobile App.

Pleasanton, Calif. – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is investigating how Safeway Inc. reports and keeps records on the theft and loss of controlled substances. In a regulatory filing, Safeway said it received a subpoena from the DEA to look into its controlled substance practices.

The National Retail Federation has joined the growing chorus of voices expecting a surge in consumer spending during the next five months to compensate for a weak start to the year.

Footwear maker Crocs is undergoing a major restructuring that includes closing stores and job cutbacks.

The plan comes on the heels of the company's disappointing second-quarter earnings results. Earlier this month, Crocs reported that second-quarter profit fell 44% to $19.7 million.

Whirlpool Corporation reported net sales of about $4.7 billion in the second quarter of 2014, virtually unchanged from the company's performance in the same quarter last year.

Net sales for the three months ended June 30 totaled $4.68 billion, down 1.4% from $4.75 billion in 2013.

The company's bottom line read $179 million for the quarter, down from $198 million in the second quarter of last year.