Strategy

Restoration Hardware plans to open full line design galleries in Greenwich, Atlanta and Los Angeles in 2014, and is currently in negotiations to open more than 30 locations in other key markets. The next generation full line design galleries will be larger and showcase the company’s assortment and new businesses.

Memphis, Tenn. — Perkins Restaurant & Bakery has announced a six-unit franchise development agreement in Iowa and Nebraska over the next six years. The franchisee, CyHawk Hospitality Inc., currently operates six Perkins Restaurants and Bakeries — five in Iowa and another in Independence, Mo.

The first of the six new units opened in July in Ankeny, Iowa. Another location in Norfolk, Neb., has broken ground with an anticipated opening later this month.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Kmart has launched a low-cost check-cashing service for Shop Your Way members at stores nationwide. 

Boston -- City Sports announced that it will open its latest retail store this week at 225 Franklin Street, marking the company's eighth store in its hometown Boston market and first in the city's financial district.
 
The Franklin Street store will open the week of Sept. 9, giving a fresh look to the space once occupied by State Street. This will be the brand's second new store in the Boston area this year, following the opening of City Sports' Chestnut Hill location at The Street this past spring.

PHILADELPHIA — Five Below saw solid performance across most of its categories, resulting in a comparable store sales increase of 6.6% for the second quarter ended Aug. 3 and net sales of $117.1 million, a 34.9% jump from $86.8 million in the prior-year quarter.

The company opened 18 new stores and ended the quarter with 276 stores in 19 states. This represents an increase in stores of 22% from the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2012. 

Washington, D.C. - Import volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to grow 5.1% in September over the same month last year as retailers head into the holiday season. U.S. ports followed by the monthly Global Port Tracker report, released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates, handled 1.43 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in July, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available.

Neiman Marcus is closing in on a deal to be purchased by Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $6 billion, according to reports.

Warrendale, Pa. – Two independent proxy voting advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis & Co., have both recommended that rue21 shareholders vote for a proposed acquisition by Apax Partners. As previously announced on May 23, 2013, rue21 entered into a definitive agreement under which funds advised by Apax Partners will acquire all outstanding shares of rue21 for $42 per share in cash.