Corporate Governance

After 24 years of patchwork-style growth, Wild Wing Cafe is getting serious about expansion. The chain has debuted its first-ever prototype design and, true to the brand’s roots, live entertainment is critical to the format. From the low-rise stage equipped with a special VIP entrance for musicians to an oversized video wall comprised of more than 20 screens, Wild Wing Cafe takes its motto — “Where Great Food Rocks” — seriously.

It’s a common retail scenario: Last year, several sites deployed consistent schedules and set-points and also staged energy-consuming assets into groups that engaged at different times of the day. These executed measures led to significant kWh savings.

Rebates for lighting upgrades are alive and well, with rebate organizations having updated their rebate and incentive programs for 2014. Currently, 71% of the country is covered by an active commercial lighting rebate, according to BriteSwitch, Princeton, New Jersey, which helps large national companies take advantage of rebate and incentive programs that exist across the United States and Canada.

Here is a review of major rebate trends from BriteSwitch: 

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Tewksbury, Mass. – Following the dismissal of former president and CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, the board of directors of Demoulas Super Markets Inc. has elected retail executives Felicia Thornton as COO and Jim Gooch as chief administrative officer, and the two will serve as co-CEOs. Both Thornton and Gooch had recently been serving as consultants to the company.

San Francisco – Gap Inc. has reportedly experienced a 10% increase in job applications since its February announcement that it would raise its minimum wage for employees to $10 per hour by 2015. According to Bloomberg, the increase has occurred across all Gap brands, including Banana Republic and Athletica, but has been most pronounced at Old Navy, where applications had previously been declining.

New York - A series of new concept Juicy Couture stores will be opened in the U.S. and Canada beginning in 2015. The new stores will be in key, high traffic locations such as New York City, Los Angeles and Vancouver, and will replace existing Juicy Couture stores in the U.S.

Duluth, Minn. – Specialty young women’s apparel store Maurices plans to open 15 new stores, including seven grand openings and eight reopenings, through the middle of July. The new stores include:

Grand Openings:
June 27: Lufkin, Texas at Lufkin Mall and Greensburg, Indiana, at Greensburg Crossing.
July 4: Aurora, Colorado, at The Gardens on Havana.
July 5: Hoffman Estates, Illinois, at Poplar Creek Crossing.

Merrimack, N.H. – A bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, has approved the June 4 sale of Brookstone Inc. to Hong Kong-based Sailing Innovation (US) Inc., a consortium led by Sailing Capital Overseas Investment Fund LP with a financing commitment from GE Capital. Backers of the $174 million acquisition include Chinese conglomerate Sanpower Group and Chinese government-supported Shanghai Investment Group.

Naples, Fla. – One-in-four global consumers has been victimized by card fraud in the past five years. According to a new study conducted by ACI Worldwide and Aite Group, the United Arab Emirates has the highest rate of credit, debit and prepaid card fraud overall at 44%, followed by China at 42% and India and the United States at 41% each.

Other findings include:

• 63% of global consumers (respondents) who have experienced fraud are more likely to use their cards less.