Corporate Governance

Dublin, Calif. – Ross Dress for Less will open one new store in Las Vegas and two new stores in Florida on July 19. The new stores are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.

The Florida stores will be located in Pier Park North in Panama City Beach and Royal Gardens Plaza in Hialeah Garden. They will give Ross a total of 140 stores in Florida.

Seattle – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reportedly drafted a complaint against Amazon.com regarding what it says have been millions of dollars in unauthorized in-app purchases by children using Amazon devices. According to Reuters, the FTC wants to Amazon to make refunds of unauthorized child purchases of digital goods and services within existing apps downloaded by their parents, as well as compensate the FTC for court costs.

Vancouver – Lululemon Athletica Inc. is reportedly considering going private. According to the Wall Street Journal, advisors to Chip Wilson, founder, director and former CEO and chairman of Lululemon, have been speaking with private equity firms including Leonard Green & Partners about possibly taking the retail chain private, although no specific deal is imminent.
   

June was a good month for two of the nation’s largest drugstore operators. Walgreens reported sales of $6.3 billion for the month, an increase of 8.9% as compared to the same month in fiscal 2013, while Rite Aid realized a 3.9% same-store sales increase for the four weeks ended June 28.

Total front-end sales at Walgreens increased 1.8% in June compared with the same month in fiscal 2013, while comparable store front-end sales increased 1.3%. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 2% while basket size increased 3.3%.
 

Chicago – Cardtek Group, a provider of software for financial transactions and EMV migration, is launching Cardtek USA. The company’s North American headquarters, based in Chicago, will facilitate the U.S. adoption of Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) technology in an effort to help prevent credit card fraud and data breaches.

Dublin, Calif. - Ross Dress for Less will open three new stores in Indiana on July 19. The stores include Waterford Park South Shopping Center in Clarksville, Shops on Main in Schererville, and Erskine Village in South Bend.  
    
These new openings are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.

Deerfield, Ill. – Same-store sales at both Walgreens and Rite Aid increased in June, compared to the same period a year earlier. Same-store sales grew 7.5% at Walgreens and 3.9% at Rite Aid.

Calendar day shifts helped boost same-store sales at Walgreens, while the introduction of new generic drugs had a negative impact. In addition, Walgreens had June sales of $6.28 billion, an increase of 8.9% from $5.77 billion for the same month in fiscal 2013.

New York -- Online menswear brand Bonobos has raised a total of $55 million in venture capital funding, bringing the brand's total funding to $128 million. The company plans to use a large part of the latest investment to quadruple its physical store count, growing from 10 locations to 40 nationwide by 2016, The New York Times reported.