Strategy

Irvine, Calif. -- Whole Foods Market and the Irvine Company announced that the companies have signed a lease to bring the first Whole Foods Market to Irvine, California.

The organic and natural grocer will occupy approximately 40,000 sq. ft. at Los Olivos Marketplace, a specialty shopping center just off the 405 freeway at Irvine Center Drive in Irvine Spectrum.

Publix Super Markets and Weis Markets reported respectable second quarter sales growth, but profits were harder to come by.

Publix, the nation’s fifth largest supermarket chain, said sales for its second quarter increased 6.6% to $7.5 billion, with 1.3% of the gain related to the timing of Easter. Same store sales increased 6.3%. Despite the top line improvement, Publix said profits increased slightly less than 1% to $404.1 million from $400.9 million while earnings per share increased by a penny to 52 cents.

Redwood Shores, Calif. – Specialty supplements retailer PureFormulas recently migrated to Oracle Commerce to personalize the customer experience and open up new market segments without sacrificing ease of use.

Staples has teamed up with Fundable, a business crowdfunding platform, to launch a new contest called Crowd2Shelf, which invites entrepreneurs and small businesses to leverage crowdfunding for a chance to sell their products in Staples stores as well as online.

Sunbury, Pa. – Net income at Weis Markets Inc. plummeted close to 47% during the second quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to the prior year period. Weis reported net income of $12.8 million, compared to $21.18 million a year earlier.

Weis cited company reinvestment and price discounting as driving the net income decline. Second quarter sales increased 4.5% to $691.9 million, from $662.1 million and same-store sales increased 2.9%.

Conn’s has appointed William E. Saunders Jr. to its board of directors. Saunders will also become a member of the audit committee and the nominating and corporate governance committee.

Mississauga, Canada – Target opens three new stores in Canada Aug. 1 and plans three more new Canadian stores later in the fall. The stores are located at Erin Mills Town Centre in Mississauga, Ontario; Park Place in Barrie, Ontario and Carrefour Candiac in Candiac, Quebec.

New York -- A report by Bloomberg said that investor BlueCrest Capital Management is urging RadioShack to repay the lenders that are blocking plans to shutter stores.

The electronics retailer announced last March that it would close 1,100 stores; it later reduced the number of closures to 200 per year for three years after negotiations with lenders failed.

BlueCrest said it supported the company's decision to shut stores to stem losses and was willing to provide financing, Bloomberg said.