Corporate Governance

AutoZone says inventory efficiency improvements allowed the retailer to increase sales and profit in the first quarter.

For the period ended Nov. 21, net sales were $2.4 billion, an increase of 5.6% from the prior year quarter. Same-store sales increased 3.5% for the quarter. Net income for the quarter increased 8.3% over the same period last year to $258.1 million, while diluted earnings per share increased 14% to $8.29 per share from $7.27 per share in the year-ago quarter.

With rival AutoZone continuing to produce record results, Pep Boys' financial performance is headed in the opposite direction as uncertainty looms over who will acquire the company.

Pep Boys reported a 1.8% decrease in same store sales for the period ended Oct. 31. Net sales decreased by $9.4 million, or 1.8%, to $508.1 million from $517.6 million in the prior year. Net earnings were $1.3 million or 2 cents per share as compared to a net loss of $2 million in the prior year.

ICSC’s 2015 New York National Conference & Deal Making show is on track to set an attendance record, with approximately 10,000 dealmakers estimated at the event, outstripping the previous peak of 9,600 attendees set in 2014 and spurring the event’s planners to explore options for adding space in future years.

In October, Walgreens announced plans to acquire Rite Aid in a deal that had been widely anticipated. The deal is most certainly going to reshape the retail market by creating a drug store giant with nearly 13,000 stores in the United States; as well, it foretells of the significant changes occurring in the healthcare market.

Various technology analysts, retail industry pundits, and economists of all stripes, have long predicted the demise of paper and coin currency along with the dawn of a cashless society.

And it is true that over the last few years, we’ve seen a big acceleration in the drive towards large-scale consumer adoption of new digital payments technologies, especially in the mobile category.

Activist investor Carl Icahn has offered to buy Pep Boys-Manny, Moe & Jack in a deal valuing the U.S. auto parts retailer at about $837 million, trumping Bridgestone's offer of $810 million in October.

It’s like it is 1997 all over again with the Federal Trade Commission stepping in to block a merger between Staples and Office Depot on grounds that the deal would diminish competition.

Walmart is the only chain retailer to fully meet a goal it made related to an initiative of opening stores in “food deserts,” the Associated Press reported. [Associated Press]

Nordstrom continues to invest in new shopping models with the announcement that it is expanding its partnership with Shoes of Prey, a start-up that enables women to customize shoes online.