Finance & Capital Management

Gymboree Corp. is planning a significant reduction in its store fleet.   The retailer is looking to close hundreds of stores part of a restructuring under bankruptcy court protection, The Wall Street Journal reported. The final number of stores, however, has yet to be determined.  

The retail industry had some good news on the job front in April.  

The nation’s largest retailer is introducing special financing for its credit cards that comes with an appealing hook.    The new offer provides no-interest financing plans for the Walmart Credit Card and the Walmart Mastercard Credit Card, with plans extending across either six months or 12 months on purchases. Similar to most plans, customers don’t pay any interest during the promotional period. But the Walmart offer is different from most others in that the interest also does not accrue during the promotional period.

Is Neiman Marcus about to be involved in a lawsuit as opposed to a merger?  

Current media reporting on the state of physical retail is mostly doom and gloom. But analysts at real estate research company CoStar listened in on the latest wave of Q1 earnings calls and discovered a generally bullish attitude for brick-and-mortar retail among developers.   “I just think the [negative] narrative is a way ahead of itself," a CoStar report quoted Simon Properties CEO David Simon as saying.   

Job losses are piling up in the retail industry amid ongoing store closings.    The retail industry experienced 11,669 job cuts in April, the highest total among all industries, bringing the year-to-date total to 50,133, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That is up 36% from the 36,977 retail-sector job cuts announced in the first four months of 2016.   

An executive from Avery Dennison Corp. is headed to Nordstrom.    The retailer announced that Anne Bramman is joining the company as CFO effective June 2, 2017. Bramman comes to Nordstrom from Avery Dennison, where she has served as senior VP and CFO since 2015. She previously held the CFO position at Carnival Cruise Line, and was also CFO of Henri Bendel, a subsidiary of L Brands Inc.