Strategy

A start-up consumer electronics retailer has deployed a friendly-looking, white plastic robot named Pepper to greet shoppers.   In a two-week test, high-tech retailer B8ta is the first retail store in the United States to deploy the humanoid robot, which is from Japan’s SoftBank Robotics, Mercurynews.com reported.   

J.C. Penney Co. continues to make progress in its turnaround efforts as its narrowed its second quarter loss and posted a gain in same-store sales even as Macy’s and Kohl’s posted declines.    The retailer also reaffirmed its full year forecast of a 3%- to 4% increase in same-store sales.    It’s been a busy few months for Penney, which has been opening expanded appliance departments and testing in-store partnerships with Ashley Furniture and Empire Today.  

Kohl’s Corp. beat analysts’ expectations for the second quarter even as its sales continued to show weakness.     The retailer posted a profit of $140 million, or 77 cents a share for the quarter ended July 30, compared with $130 million, or 66 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding certain items, earnings rose to $1.22 a share from $1.07 a year ago.   Revenue fell 2% to a better-than-expected $4.18 billion. Same-store sales fell 1.8%.  

Macy’s Inc. on Thursday posted second quarter results that topped analysts’ expectations. But with a steep drop in profit and sales still on the decline, the department giant said it will close 100 stores. It also gave an update on its real estate strategy.   

Bayer Properties’ plan for drawing shoppers to its new $156 million mixed-use development in Lexington, Kentucky, could be one that catches on in other rural regions: Recruit retail tenants that are not new to the universe, but new to the state.   So when it opens next spring, the retail roster at The Summit at Fritz Farm will include Bonobos, Cos Bar, Shake Shack, J. McLaughlin, Brooks Brothers, and — just signed this week — Marine Layer.  

Wal-Mart Stores’ Mexican unit is shedding its apparel store chain.   Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB (Walmex) is selling its Suburbia chain to El Puerto de Liverpool SAB, one of the largest department store operators in Mexico, in a deal valued at 19 billion pesos ($1.03 billion), Bloomberg reported.  

“I'm sad to see this news. Macy's is an iconic retailer with a long history of success, and one of many victims of Amazon success. In the same week that Jeff Bezos pockets roughly $800 million personal dollars, Macy's is forced to suffer a tremendous physical retail loss.