Corporate Governance

A third quarter same store sales decline of 1% at Dillard’s wasn’t enough to dissuade CEO William Dillard, II, from declaring the company is very well positioned for the holidays.

Total merchandise sales also declined 1% to $1.42 billion while net incomes increased to $55.2 million, or $1.30 a share, compared to $50.9 million, or $1.13 a share. The third quarter earnings per share benefited from a one time gain of $3.8 million, or nine cents a share, related to the sale of a store location.

Walmart’s same store sales turned positive during the third quarter, ending a two year drought, prompting the company to forecast a U.S. comp increase of as much as 1% during the fourth quarter.

Plano, Texas -– Amid restrained consumer spending and warmer weather that dulled sales of seasonal merchandise, JCPenney Co. Inc. managed to shrink its third quarter net loss more than Wall Street expected in the third quarter of fiscal 2014, but missed projections with weaker-than-expected net sales.  

Bentonville, Ark. –- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reportedly sent a memo to marketing managers on Oct. 2 saying that sales need to improve for chilled and fresh items in stores, including dairy, meat and produce. 

 

According to the New York Times, the memo cited customer complaints about expired items, as well as the need for less backup inventory and the rotation of perishable items.

 

Hangzhou, China -- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which previously said it is in discussions with Apple about working with its Apple Pay digital payment service, is now reportedly also open to working with EBay’s PayPal digital payment service.  

Fort Worth, Texas –- RadioShack Corp. is reportedly placing a midday break into its previously planned all-day store hours for Thanksgiving. According to Bloomberg, an internal company memo shows that RadioShack, which had previously planned to keep stores open from 8 a.m. to midnight on Thanksgiving, will now close stores between noon and 5p.m. that day.  

Chicago -– The perception of men as not enjoying the process of grocery shopping may have some truth to it. More men are grocery shopping for themselves or their families now than in the past, but they’re not happy about it, reports The NPD Group.  

Arlington, Virginia –- Brick-and-mortar retailers have at least one good piece of news to cheer them up this fall. U.S. same-store retail sales were up 1.3%, or $3.9 billion, in October 2014, driven by a 2.2% increase in dollars per transaction, according to data from the Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) Index and historical U.S. Census data.   

San Francisco -- Euclid, the leader of in-store retail analytics, today releases its monthly retail benchmarks report to analyze shopper activity and behavior during the month of October.  

Cincinnati –- Half of all consumers dislike the idea of all-day Thanksgiving store shopping hours, although younger consumers are more open to it.   According to a survey of 1,001 U.S. consumers by loyalty services provider Loyalty One, 50% say all-day shopping hours on Thanksgiving Day are a bad idea that detracts from the traditional celebration.