Finance & Capital Management

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.

Milwaukee -- Mid-America Real Estate Corporation’s Investment Sales team recently brokered the sale of a 4,991-sq.-ft. multi-tenant retail building within the Underwood Crossings development, a 175,000-sq.-ft. retail center located in Brookfield (Milwaukee MSA), Wisconsin. A private investor purchased the property for $1.7 million.

Secaucus, N.J. – The Children’s Place Inc. has authorized a new $100 million share repurchase, with the goal of returning excess capital to shareholders. During the past five years, Children’s Place has returned more than $487 million to our shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.

Momentum from Black Friday weekend continued through the holidays for Pier 1 Imports Inc.

The home furnishings retailer, which reported a disappointing third quarter in early November, reported an 8.2% increase in December same store sales. CEO Alex Smith said while sales in the third quarter were soft, November sales were strong versus a year ago, particularly over Thanksgiving weekend.

Hamilton, Bermuda – Signet Jewelers Ltd. had a sparkly holiday season. The retailer’s eight-week fiscal 2015 holiday season sales grew 3.6%.

Signet's omnichannel strategy was successful during the holiday season. E-commerce sales increased 90.9%, and, excluding the Zale division, increased 20%. As a percent of Signet's holiday season's total sales, e-commerce increased 1.6%. Each division delivered higher e-commerce growth and penetration relative to total sales.

It was a happy holiday from a sales standpoint at Steinmart with the company reporting a 5.8 percent same store sales increase for December.

The 5.8 percent comp increase for the December period ended Jan. 3 follows a 4.8 percent gain in November and a 4.5 percent increase during the prior December.

Plano, Texas – It will not be a happy New Year for employees of some 40 J.C. Penney stores. The company on Thursday said that it plans to close approximately 40 stores, which represent less than 4% of its total store base, on or about April 4, 2015. The closures will affect about 2,250 employees.

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