Corporate Governance

New York -- GA Keen Realty Advisors, LLC of New York, a division of Great American Group has begun marketing leases for 150 Bakers and Wild Pair shoe store locations across the country.

Dallas -- Zale Corp. announced the addition of Genesis Financial Solutions to its U.S. alternative financing program. The new financing option, which became available in October, is offered in Zales, Zales Outlet and Gordon’s retail stores.

Dallas -- 7-Eleven announced that it has completed the purchase of 12 stores from Fast Track  in Central North Carolina, including Winston-Salem. Terms of the agreement are not disclosed.

Remodeling of the units to transform them into 7-Eleven stores gets underway in late November and rebranding is expected to be complete by mid-February 2013.

Ra'Anana, Israel -- Woolworths Limited, Australia's leading retail group, has signed a five-year system integration (SI) services agreement with Retalix Ltd.
 
Under the agreement, Retalix will provide Level 2 and Level 3 support for more than 3,000 Woolworths locations and 25,000 point-of-sale terminals, serving more than 24 million customers every week across Australia and New Zealand.

New York -- Dillard’s third quarter merchandise sales for the quarter ended Oct. 27 increased 4% to more than $1.4 billion, same-store sales increased 5% and operating profits increased 84% to nearly $73 million. Gross margins expanded 40 basis points to 37.1% and same-store inventory levels were down 1%.

Walmart will sell a bazillion electronics products this holiday season, no thanks to Consumer Reports which rates the company last as a CE destination.

Apple and Costco were ranked one and two as the best venues for CE items followed by a bizarre classification called "independents," considering the CE space is dominated by chains. The Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) and Sam’s Club ranked highly. Walmart was last among the 14 physical retailers ranked with a score of 81, compared to Apple and Costco at 92.

Dallas -- J.C. Penney Co. Inc. on Friday reported a 26.1% decline in third-quarter same-store sales, more than the 17.9% that Wall Street analysts were expecting.

Overall sales fell 26.6% to $2.93 billion. Internet sales fell 37.3% to $214 million.

The company said that its net loss narrowed to $123 million in the third quarter ended Oct. 27, from $143 million a year earlier. The loss was wider than analysts had expected.

Washington -- Lawyers representing the National Retail Federation and many of the nation’s most prominent retail companies are set to appear in court today to ask a federal judge to reject a proposed class-action settlement of an antitrust lawsuit over the $30 billion a year in credit card swipe fees charged by Visa and MasterCard.



Jacksonville, Fla. -- Stein Mart Inc. announced Friday that it will restate its financial statements for fiscal years 2009, 2010 and 2011, its quarterly data for the first quarter of 2012 and for all quarters in 2010 and 2011, as well as its selected financial data for the relevant periods due to merchandising accounting errors.

Shopko will open for extended hours and feature special door buster prices on hundreds of items beginning　Thanksgiving Day.