Finance & Capital Management

Camp Hill, Pa. - For the four weeks ended Sept. 27, 2014, same store sales increased 5.1% from the prior-year period at Rite Aid Corp. September front-end same store sales increased 2.3%, while pharmacy same-store sales increased 6.3% and same-store prescription count grew 4.4%.

Total drugstore sales for the four-week period increased 4.5% to $2.02 billion, compared to $1.935 billion.

As part of its agenda to boost liquidity ahead of the highly contested holiday shopping season, Sears Holdings plans to sell most of its 51% stake in its struggling Sears Canada division to shareholders — a move that stands to raise as much as $380 million by November.

Vantiv, a leading provider of payment processing services and related technology for merchants and financial institutions, has appointed Larry Drury as its chief marketing officer. Drury will report directly to CEO Charles Drucker.

Nashville, Tenn. -- Under Armour plans to build a new one million-sq.-ft. distribution and warehouse facility in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. This will be Under Armour's third distribution center in the United States, with the original warehouse in the company's hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, and the other located in Rialto, California.

Seattle -- Starbucks Coffee Company and HBO will host a free, all-star concert to honor the nations veterans and their families on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to be presented live on HBO on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

The line-up of performers scheduled to appear at The Concert for Valor include Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Jamie Foxx, Dave Grohl, Metallica, John Oliver, Rihanna, Carrie Underwood and Zac Brown Band, as well as special appearances by Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, among others.

Dublin, Calif. - Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in Hawaii on Oct. 10. The stores are located in Kukui Grove Center in Lihue, on the island of Kauai, and the Kahala Mall in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu.  

These new openings are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.

Boston – Online home furnishings retailer Wayfair Inc. launches its initial public offering (IPO) today. The online home furnishings retailer is offering 11 million shares of common stock at $29 per share, which is above Wall Street projections.

The share offering includes 10.5 million shares of Wayfair stock and 500,000 shares from selling stockholders. Wayfair will not receive any proceeds from the selling stockholder shares, meaning the company should raise about $304.5 million in the IPO.