Events

Michaels is giving children a Passport to Imagination this summer with a new free program.

This year, the low-cost, in-store sessions will focus on summer vacation fun, including lake picnics, afternoons at the beach, county fairs, music festivals and more. Passport to Imagination begins July 6 and will run through Aug. 21 in all Canadian stores, with three classes per week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to noon.

Warren, Mich. -- At least one retailer is bucking the current smaller store trend by opening its biggest location to date.

Art Van Furniture will open a two-story, 112,000-sq.-ft. store showroom in Downers Grove, Ill., on July 30. It will not only be the largest Art Van Furniture store among the company's 90 Midwest locations, but also and the largest furniture store in Chicagoland.

Barnes & Noble is debuting a strangely appropriate omnichannel promotion for a retailer who might wish it could go back to an era in which bookshops were more relevant.

GameStop is kicking off summer in a big way with a five-week Twitter contest aimed at increasing customer engagement.

The contest, called #SummerAtGameStop, is a five-week contest series designed for gamers to share their personal stories on how video gaming brings fans together to create unique friendships and lifelong relationships. The program encompasses five themed weeks: Never Met, Romance, Reunited, Game Night, and Rematch.

Market forces have driven consolation throughout all of retail and especially health care where Target recently sold its pharmacy business to CVS Health. How is it that 20,000 independent pharmacies continue to thrive in an increasingly complex health care world and what can other retailers learn from their experience.

The Consumer Goods Forum has elected two new board members with broad packaged goods and retail experience.

Denise Morrison, president and CEO of Campbell Soup Company, and Gareth Ackerman, chairman of Pick n Pay, are joining the board. Morrison will chair the Manufacturer College of the board while Ackerman will chair the Retailer College. The pair will lead the CGF Board for two years, and replace outgoing co-chairs Dick Boer of Royal Ahold and Paul Bulcke of Nestlé. 

Champs Sports is elevating its value proposition for shoppers by launching an Under Armour store-within-a-store.

The ARMOURY at Champs Sports will serve as a destination for legions of Under Armour brand enthusiasts, featuring all of Under Armour's best and most innovative footwear, apparel, and accessories.

Toys”R”Us is curating a special lineup of toys -- and a new shop -- in anticipation of San Diego Comic-Con that is designed to appeal to the toy collector community.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation praised the Senate’s passage on Wednesday of Trade Promotion Authority

Washington, D.C. - Retailers lose billions of dollars to shoplifting, employee and vendor theft and administrative error, collectively known as inventory shrink.

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF)/University of Florida National Retail Security Survey, inventory shrink averaged 1.38% of retail sales, or $44 billion, in 2014. (The methodology for the survey changed in 2015 and as such, NRF does not have comparable data from prior years for this year’s report.) The report was sponsored by The Retail Equation.