Corporate Governance

Build-A-Bear Workshop on Tuesday said it has hired financial and legal advisers to help it explore strategic alternatives. The news came the day after General Nutrition Corp. (GNC) said it was doing the same.

Retailers who fail to maintain a clean, well-maintained store are putting themselves at a strong competitive disadvantage.

That’s the takeaway from a new survey conducted by Harris Poll for the Cintas Corp., which found that 93% of U.S. adults would not return to a retailer if they experienced some type of issue related to the facility. The top five factors that would turn patrons away from a store were:

• General bad odor – 78%
• Dirty restrooms (e.g., floors, stalls, mirrors, odor) – 66%

Sheetz is putting the “help wanted” sign out.

The opening of the newest Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th location near downtown Chicago is a big deal literally and figuratively.

The newest Off 5th is located in the NEWCITY development at Lincoln Park on the northern fringe of downtown Chicago at 1457 Halsted Street at the intersection of North Clybourn Avenue. The store is the company’s 100th Off 5th location in North American, its seventh in Illinois and the second in downtown Chicago following the April 14 opening of the first location as 6 S. State Street.

About two-thirds (64%) of the United States is covered by prescriptive lighting rebates, according to BriteSwitch, a rebate fulfillment company. These rebates can significantly reduce the installed cost of new lighting in existing buildings and improve payback by 20%-25%, which would reduce a two-year payback to about 1.5 years.

Despite the proliferation of the LED source, traditional lighting product rebates remain available.

After a difficult third quarter of fiscal 2016, Perfumania Holdings Inc. continued experiencing problems in the year’s fourth quarter.

The specialty chain is considering closing an unspecified number of underperforming stores after reporting net income of $2.26 million, down 59% from $5.5 million a year earlier. Lower gross profit and operating income helped slash profit.

Starbucks has opened a store in Ferguson, Missouri, a city that was rocked by racial unrest in 2014, as part of its ongoing initiative to open stores in at least 15 lower-income U.S. communities by 2018.

The opening follows the launch of a similar store in the Jamaica section of Queens, New York, in March. Both are part of a national plan to provide local jobs, create training opportunities for youth, and support efforts to rebuild and revitalize communities.

Haverty Furniture Company has been around since the late 19th century, but the specialty furniture retailer has a decidedly 21st-century approach to energy management.

“We want Havertys to be the company everyone wants to come work for,” said Rawson Haverty Jr., senior VP real estate and development, Havertys, during a session at Chain Store Age’s SPECS 2016 Conference, March 13-15, in Dallas.

Environmental stewardship, and thus energy conservation, is on the Atlanta-based furniture retailer’s list of 10 core values, Haverty explained.

Although the construction industry lags other major verticals in IT spending, technology is still having a dramatic impact on the practice.

“We are at the intersection of technology and buildings,” said James M. Benham, CEO of construction technology firm JBKnowledge.

The generation born between the early 1980s and the year 2000 — labeled millennials — has captured the collective attention of retail marketers. And not just because there are more than 80 million of them, although that’s a factor. This group craves access, not necessarily ownership, and they have a real affinity for technology, which is shaping the retail space.