Marketing

The CEOs of Staples and Office Depot penned a letter to customers which reveals the extent of their deteriorated relations with the Federal Trade Commission ahead of a hearing that begins March 21 that will determine whether the retailers are allowed to merge.

In the letter, Staples chairman and CEO Ron Sargent and Office Depot chairman and CEO Roland Smith stop short of actually calling the FTC stupid, but that is the inference from more diplomatically worded prose.

Gordmans Stores plans to open a new store next month in its hometown of Omaha in April, the first of five new units the apparel and home décor retailer has planned for the year.

PizzaRev, a fast-casual pizza concept backed by Buffalo Wild Wings, announced its first locations in New York.

New York is one of five new states that PizzaRev will enter this year, including Massachusetts, Nevada, Ohio, and Tennessee. The company will also make its international debut in Mexico shortly after opening in New York. There are currently more than 150 additional PizzaRev restaurants in various stages of development across the United States and Mexico.

Destination XL Group is seeing strong same store sales growth from its stores branded as DXL as it continues to shift away from the smaller footprint Casual Male concept.

Destination XL Group, which bills itself as the largest omnichannel specialty retailer of big and tall men's apparel, said its total same store sales increased 3.1%, but its 137 DXL stores open for more than 13 months grew comps 8.9%.

Carl Nottberg, a veteran retail facilities executive, lost his battle with cancer on March 14, 2016.

Nottberg, senior VP of development at EMCOR Facilities Services, was suffering from multiple myeloma, a relatively uncommon form of cancer that attacks the plasma cells in the bone marrow.

Specialty apparel retailer New York & Company plans to convert even more of its nearly 500 stores to an outlet format following a strong finish to the year.

This week I’d like to discuss the re-emergence of skyline signs, but first allow me to offer a quick thank you to the entire Chain Store Age and SPECS Show teams for executing a trade show I won’t soon forget.

Of course, I’m talking about last week’s show at the beautiful Hilton Anatole in Dallas, #SPECS2016.

The pace of expansion slowed at Shoe Carnival in 2015 but the company produced respectable growth against a challenging prior year comparison that has it poised to achieve a major milestone in 2016.

Leading off price apparel retailer Ross Stores is feeling the “Bern,” and named long time merchant Bernie Brautigan to the role of president of merchandising.

Brautigan previously served as Ross Stores’ group executive vice president of merchandising since 2014. He will continue to report to Ross CEO Barbara Rentler in his new role and be responsible for the ladies apparel businesses, children's, shoes, and accessories.

Ross Dress for Less opened a new store North El Centro, California on March 5. The opening is part of the retailer’s 2016 expansion program, totaling about 70 new locations during the year.

The 26,000- sq.-ft. store is located at Centro Commons, 11 miles north of the California-Mexico border, at the intersection of Imperial Avenue and Cruickshank Drive. With this location, Ross operates 277 stores in California, its largest state.