Corporate Governance

New York City -- Off-price retailer Daffy's on Wednesday is opening a nineteenth location, in New York City’s Times Square.

The new 17,000-sq.-ft. store, located at 218 West 44th Street in the former New York Times building.

New Albany, Ohio -- Abercrombie & Fitch earnings rose 1.7% in the third quarter, well short of analysts’ estimates, as rising costs pressures offset a big jump in sales.

For the quarter ended Oct. 30, the chain reported $50.9 million in earnings, up from $50 million in the same period last year. Total sales rose 21% to $1.08 billion, more or less in line with Wall Street estimates.

Total international sales including e-commerce rose 56% to $255.7 million. In the United States, sales rose 14% to $820.2 million.
 

Naperville, Ill. -- OfficeMax Inc. announced a strategic pilot with RadioShack Corp. whereby OfficeMax will pilot the RadioShack Mobile offering in the San Francisco market beginning in January 2012.

As part of this pilot program, RadioShack employees will offer mobile products and services, including prepaid and postpaid wireless products, accessories and service plans, as well as assist in selling OfficeMax consumer electronics products and services, in approximately 15-20 OfficeMax stores.

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot announced that Office Depot stores in Plano, Texas; Raleigh, N.C.; and Tallahassee, Fla., won the top three spots for retail energy efficiency gains in the 2011 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star National Building Competition. The Plano and Raleigh stores were also the only retailers in the overall top 10 list.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp.’s profit increased a better-than-expected 3.7% in the third quarter to $555 million, up from $535 a year earlier. The retailer’s performance was helped by solid spending and improvement in its credit card business.

Revenue rose 5.4% to $16.05 billion. Same-store sales were up 4.3% in the quarter.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Profits at Staples grew 13% to $326 million and earnings per share grew 18% to 47 cents as the nation’s leading office products company overcame weak revenue growth that saw sales advance half a percent to $6.6 billion.

NEW YORK — Macy's announced that it will debut Ideology, a new brand of activewear, this spring. Cheryl Burke, renowned professional dancer and two-time winner of Dancing with the Stars, will serve as the face of the new brand.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart delivered a long awaited same-store sales increase of 1.3% at its U.S. stores division in the third quarter and pointed to ongoing momentum for the holidays with comps guidance in the range of flat to up 2%.

ATLANTA — Stormy weather around the country had something to do with Home Depot's third quarter sales gain of 2.9%. So did strength in core categories.

The world's largest home improvement retailer posted a 4.2% comp-store sales gain for the quarter ended Oct. 30. Total sales increased 2.9% to $17.326 billion. And even bigger growth came in the net earnings column, where Home Depot reported a 13.0% increase and net earnings of $934 million.

PITTSBURGH — Dick’s Sporting goods gave its shareholders a holiday surprise Tuesday morning when the company reported better-than-expected third-quarter results, increased its full-year guidance and declared its first ever dividend.