Corporate Governance

Bed, Bath & Beyond, which missed sales and earnings expectations for its first quarter, is focusing online for growth.   Citing strong digital growth, CEO Steven Temares said on the chain's quarterly earnings call that he expects store closings to increase as leases expire and as the way customers shop continue to evolve.  

Sears Canada is looking to reinvent itself.    The long-struggling department store retailer said it expects to close 59 of its 225 stores and cut 2,900 of its approximately 17,000 workers as part of its restructuring. Sears Canada filed for protection from its creditors under Canada's Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, the equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, on Thursday.    

The chief executive of a regional supermarket chain ranks among the nation's highest-rated CEOs.   Charles C. Butt, CEO of H-E-B, based in Austin, Texas, was the only retail chief executive to crack the top 20 of Glassdoor's annual Employee Choice Awards, which honor the 100 highest rated CEOs of large companies across the United States. Butt ranked #16. (The number one position was held by Benno Dorer, CEO of Clorox.)   

Drone deliveries by Amazon could one day originate from an unusual-looking starting point.   

Walmart leads the pack when it comes to paid search advertising in the grocery category.   That’s according to new research from AdGooroo. The search marketing intelligence provider analyzed 124 non-branded grocery store and grocery delivery keywords from June 2016-May 2017.  

While the pace of decline at B&N has eased, the company remains firmly in decline with sales down across the board. The saving grace is that a firm grip on costs, which were slashed by $137 million over the year, allowed the group to reduce losses for the quarter, and to post a $22 million net profit for the full fiscal.  

Ongoing cost reductions helped the nation's largest bookstore retailer narrow its loss in its fourth quarter even as its sales continued to slide.   Barnes & Noble posted a net loss of $13.4 million, or $0.19 per share, for the quarter, compared to a loss of $30.6 million, or $0.42 per share, in the prior year.  For the quarter, the company's retail division generated an operating loss of $15.9 million, while Nook incurred an operating loss of $7.9 million, for a total operating loss of $23.8 million.  

Made-to-measure menswear brand Indochino continues its expansion from the Web into physical retail.       

The nation's retailers lost a staggering amount of money in 2016 due to shoplifting, organized crime, internal theft and other types of inventory shrink.    Inventory shrink totaled $48.9 billion in 2016, up from $45.2 billion the year before, as budget constraints left retail security budgets flat or declining, according to the annual National Retail Security Survey by the National Retail Federation and the University of Florida. The thefts amounted to 1.44% of sales, up from 1.38%.  

The Southeast’s leading grocery chain will be opening a new center in the state where it has its least exposure, and leasing activity is brisk.   Broker La Purser & Associates reported the signing of four tenants at a planned Publix-anchored center in Harrisburg, North Carolina. Smoothie King, Sports Clips, Avalon Spa & Nails, and dental office have committed to the 67,200-sq.-ft. Harris Square, set to open in 2018.