Strategy

Minneapolis — Twin Cities’ fashion retailer “Len” has renewed its lease at Minneapolis City Center with a seven-year commitment. The existing 7,196-sq.-ft. store is the retailer’s only downtown location following the consolidation of several brands and stores over the last six months. The chain operates five more locations in Minnesota and one in Illinois.

Minneapolis City Center is the two-story retail portion of a 1.6 million mixed-use property owned by Shorenstein Properties LLC.

BJ's Charitable Foundation has donated 70 grants totaling $431,000 to several nonprofit organizations whose goals are to help improve the lives of local residents in the areas surrounding BJ's Wholesale Clubs.

The funds will go toward healthcare, education, hunger prevention and self-sufficiency.

Foothill Ranch, Calif. -- The board of directors of Wet Seal Inc. has decided to reduce the cash compensation for its directors by 20% for the remainder of fiscal 2014. Wet Seal will also reduce the number of director nominees to be elected at its upcoming annual meeting from nine to seven.

Kathy Bronstein recently resigned from The Wet Seal’s board of directors, effective April 4.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reportedly plans to open an additional 40 to 50 wholesale cash-and-carry stores in India during the next four years and also launch an Indian e-commerce operation. According to the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart will begin e-commerce sales in India during summer 2014 with one wholesale store offering goods online and delivering them for pickup at other local retailers up to about 25 miles away.

Reston, Va. – Clarabridge, Inc., a provider of intelligent customer experience management (CEM) solutions, is acquiring Market Metrix, an enterprise feedback management platform in the leisure and hospitality industries. Market Metrix will complement and extend Clarabridge’s analytics and measurement-focused CEM offerings with the addition of a robust, results-oriented feedback management platform.

Rakuten has teamed up with First Bankcard to launch the Rakuten Rewards MasterCard Program, which provides cardholders with reward points for using their credit card to shop on Rakuten.com and elsewhere.  

Rakuten.com, formerly Buy.com, is Rakuten's U.S. marketplace, offering consumers more than 17 million products at everyday low prices from a network of small and large business shop owners.

Woonsocket, R.I. -- CVS Caremark Corp. agreed to pay $20 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it misled investors in 2009 during a debt offering and by accounting improperly for an acquisition.

The SEC said CVS failed to disclose while marketing $1.5 billion of bonds in September 2009 having recently lost significant Medicare and contract revenue streams in its pharmacy benefits manager business.

Tampa, Fla. — Burger 21 has announced plans to expand in the Phoenix, market with franchise developments. The fast-casual restaurant is currently developing two Arizona locations in Scottsdale and Chandler. Both will open later this year. To date, Burger 21 has 12 open locations and 18 franchised restaurants in development across the country.