Strategy

ISSAQUAH, Wash. and WESTBOROUGH, Mass. -- The shifting of Easter to April this year impacted the warehouse club sector last month, as both Costco and BJ’s reported March comps that were negatively impacted by the calendar change. Without the benefit of Easter sales, both companies still managed to turn out respectable comps.

MONTREAL – U.S. discount-store operators should keep an eye on their Northern neighbors, as Canadian dollar stores continue to thrive. Anticipating their growth potential, Virginia-based Dollar Tree acquired Canada’s Dollar Giant Store in November 2010, adding 86 more stores to its repertoire and marking its first expansion outside of the United States.

NEW YORK -- Uniqlo, a subsidiary brand of Japan-based Fast Retailing Co., announced that it will open its third New York City location at 31 West 34th Street this fall. The 34th Street store is set to open late in the fall of 2011, following the opening of the company's largest flagshop store on Fifth Avenue in early fall. Uniqlo operates a store in NYC's trendy SoHo neighborhood.

In conjunction with the news of its NYC expansion, Uniqlo announced plans to hire 1,000 retail associates and 100 supervisors from the local tri-state area.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Sales at Rite Aid fell during the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2011, according to financial results announced Thursday.

The 4,714-store retail pharmacy chain had sales of $6.5 billion for fourth quarter 2011, which ended Feb. 26, with a net loss of $205.7 million. Still, that was less than fourth quarter 2010’s loss of $208.4 million. For the fiscal year, sales were $25.2 billion, compared with $25.7 billion in fiscal year 2010. The year saw a net loss of $555.4 million, compared with $506.7 million in 2010.

MEMPHIS — Fred's on Thursday reported a 3% increase in sales for the five weeks ended April 2, reaching $188.8 million.

Comparable-store sales for the month rose 0.7%, versus an increase of 3.6% in the same period last year.

WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. -- Meijer is now selling an exclusive line of aprons for the kitchen and garden. The line was created by Crypton, a manufacturer of eco-friendly fabrics, in partnership with television host and author, Katie Brown.

The "Katie Brown Simply at Meijer" line is available at all Meijer's stores and at meijer.com.

Former retail industry executive Austin Ligon was named to the newly created position of non-executive chairman of the board at Gazelle where he will play a more active role in development of the company’s consumer electronics re-commerce business.

A new Harris Poll EquiTrend study out this week shows Target, not Walmart, as the Value Retail Brand of the Year. That would be bad enough news for Walmart given the company’s prospects in the United States are closely tied to its reputation for low prices, but this is the second year in a row Target has been named the top Value Retail Brand and the gap with Walmart even widened this year.

New York City -- Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo said Thursday it will open its third New York City location.

The new store, on 34th Street, set to open this fall, following the opening of the chain’s largest flagship location on Fifth Avenue earlier in the fall. Both stores will join the current Uniqlo location in Manhattan’s Soho district.
 

San Francisco -- Gap has entered into a new $500 million revolving credit facility with a syndicate of banks led by BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan and Citigroup Global Markets. The new financing matures in 2016 and replaces the company’s existing $500 million revolving credit facility. As part of the same financing agreement, the company also entered into a $400 million five-year term loan.