Finance & Capital Management

J.C. Penney is determined to become college-bound co-eds’ shopping destination for all of their dorm room needs.  

Macy’s is toying with a lofty idea that could create more traffic at its Herald Square store in New York City.  

As Sears Holdings continues to struggle, the chain has once again updated is restructuring plan.   The embattled retailer has added 72 more stores to its list of upcoming closures. This is in addition to more than 180 closings that it already an-nounced, according to Business Insider.   

Duluth Trading Company continues to grow its sales and store footprint.    The retailer of men’s and women’s workwear, casual clothing, and accessories reported that net sales increased 21.9% to $83.7 million in the quarter ended April 30, up from $68.6 million in the prior-year first quarter. It was the company's 29th consecutive quarter of increased net sales year-over-year.  

At Home reported a strong first quarter, helped by the addition of 23 new stores the chain opened in the past 12 months — and there are more on the way.   

The public feud between Eddie Lampert, chairman and CEO of Sears, and a top supplier seems to have been resolved.   In his May 15 blog, Lampert took aim at some of the chain’s vendors in a blog post. It read:  

The vacated Whispering Pines Mobile Home Park in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, will be filled with retail by a local developer building centers large and small along the Rhode Island border.   The still nameless project makes the fifth center that Johnston, Rhode Island-based Carpionato Group has under development in the area. They range in size from 53,000 sq. ft. of GLA at the Shoppes at Mayfaire in Attleboro to 830,000 sq. ft. at the Stonehill Marketplace power center in Johnston.  

Already navigating tumbling sales, Macy’s is preparing for even tighter margins.   At the company’s annual investor day, Macy’s CFO Karen Hoguet said that second-quarter gross margins are running about 1 percentage point below what they were last year. The company is slashing costs in a bid to maintain its earnings forecast, which it reaffirmed on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.