Strategy

PARIS — Gap Inc. has announced plans to open its first Banana Republic store in France in Paris in early December. Synonymous with culture, quality, heritage and style, the store will be , one of the most popular international shopping destinations in the world.

The 15,952 sq. ft. Paris flagship store will be located on Avenue des Champs Élysées and will occupy more than two floors.

BOCA RATON, Fla. — The small business customer may have a greater reason to visit Office Depot now that the retailer has expanded its shredding and secure document archiving service program through a new partnership with information management company, Iron Mountain.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Citing a growing obesity epidemic in the United States, Sports Authority announced that it will no longer sell candy at its 465 stores.

Though it may lose some of the impulse sales generated by offering tempting items near checkout, Sports Authority is hardly a destination for junk food lovers, and that space might be better suited for products geared more toward the retailer's customer base. 

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Frederick's of Hollywood Group has announced that the company and Linda LoRe have mutually agreed that, effective Sept. 2, LoRe will resign both as president and as a member of the board of directors of the company and its subsidiaries.  She will continue her employment through Jan. 20, 2012, and will assist in the orderly transition of her responsibilities to senior members of the company's current management team.

Home Depot and Lowe’s may receive a 1% bump to their third-quarter results as a result of Hurricane Irene sales, according to an analysis provided by MarketWatch. 

A variety of retail analysts weighed in on the question of whether Irene would help or hurt retail sales, given that many stores were forced to close when evacuation orders came. But the overall consensus was that before-and-after hurricane sales will benefit home improvement retailers, while negatively impacting department stores, specialty stores and any retailer relying on back-to-school sales.

NEW YORK — Customers with expensive taste will have greater access to luxury now that Saks is planning to open five new Off 5th stores throughout the United States. According to the company, these new stores will be located in upscale outlet, lifestyle, or strip centers, and each store will be designed in Off 5TH's unique "luxury in a loft" format. The new stores should have a particular appeal to foreign tourists, who helped drive up same-store sales to about 15% at Saks' flagship New York store.

It is hard to overstate the significance of Target’s entry into Canada in terms of the impact it will have on the company’s growth and the marketplace overall. You would have to go back to 1992 and Walmart’s acquisition of 122 Woolco stores to find an event of similar magnitude, and even that deal comes up short compared with Target’s plans to open as many as 150 stores beginning in early 2013.

The world is full of powerful women, but a recent listing of the 100 most powerful by Forbes indicates that, with a few exceptions, the publication doesn’t think many are involved in the retail and consumer packaged goods world.

PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi was ranked fourth followed by Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld at number 10 on a list that was otherwise dominated by media personalities, celebrities, politicians and government officials. As for female retail executives, well there were exactly three.

Mooresville, N.C. -- Lowe’s Cos. is consolidating its store operations and merchandising organizations. The move is designed to improve efficiencies, increase speed to market for new products and services, and enhance the shopping experience for customers, the chain said.

New York City -- Saks Inc.’s Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th announced the addition of five stores for 2012. The new stores will be located in upscale outlet, lifestyle, or strip centers.

The new locations are in Merrimack, N.H., Syracuse, N.Y., Livermore, Calif., Grand Prairie, Texas, and Nashville. The Merrimack store will be the first Off 5th in New Hampshire, and the store in Nashville will be a replacement store for the one lost in the 2010 flood in Tennessee.