Corporate Governance

Bed Bath & Beyond made another move to boost its online offerings by acquiring a home furnishings and home décor flash-sales site.

Westlake Ace Hardware has entered into a lease agreement and will be opening a new store in Overland Park, Kansas.   Lenexa, Kansas-based Westlake will take possession of the 15,500-sq.-ft. store on July 29. The store is the current location of Dobbels True Value Hardware. It will officially reopen as a Westlake Ace in fall 2016. Dobbels is currently having a going-out-of-business sale.    

Rural lifestyle retailer Tractor Supply Co. has been strengthening its IT infrastructure to support growth, and now is turning its attention to pricing.   Tractor Supply Co. plans to grow from 1,500 to 2,500 stores, and has been shifting to a Web-scale architecture and new ERP platform. Now the company is extending an existing partnership with merchandise optimization solutions provider Revionics Inc. through 2019.  

If it seems like more if your inventory is disappearing, you’re probably not imagining things.   According to the 2016 National Retail Federation (NRF) Retail Security Study, conducted in collaboration with the University of Florida, retailers’ inventory shrink averaged 1.38% of retail sales, or $45.2 billion in 2015, up by 3% from $44 billion the previous year.  

The liberal return policies of many big retailers are having a negative impact on the paychecks of store associates who receive commissions, according to a report by the New York Times.   

Solid. That’s how many industry analysts described retail sales in May.   Driven partly by rising gasoline prices, sales increased 0.5% in May, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, above the 0.3% gain economists expected. Excluding automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants, retail sales rose 0.2% unadjusted over April, according to the National Retail Federation.   

Arc’teryx Equipment, a Vancouver,Canada-based specialty retailer of high-performance outerwear and goods, is all about helping customers achieve their maximum potential.   The retailer has decided to take that same performance-driven ethos and apply it internally with help from visual analytics technology provider Qlik. Arc’teryx is using the Qlik visual analytics platform to transform its operational efficiencies and expand its global footprint.   

Draw Another Circle, the parent company of Texas-based Hastings Entertainment, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, with hopes of finding a buyer for its Hastings superstores.    

The combination of a cool spring and the continued pullback in luxury apparel spending took a toll on Neiman Marcus Group in the company’s third quarter.    The department store retailer’s profit plunged 80% in the period ended April 30, down to $3.8 million from $19.8 million in the year-ago period.    Total revenue for the quarter fell 4.2% to $1.17 billion, down from $1.22 billion a year ago.   Same-stores sales fell 5%.   

Staples is hopping on board the same-day delivery train.    The chain is testing “Staples Rush,” a same-day delivery service to its online customers in major metropolitan areas across the United States. It’s offering the service initially for a fee of $14.99 per delivery, which may change while the project is in beta.