Events

Three women from Gap’s different brands highlight how they got started in retail, stayed engaged with the business and achieved personal growth in the most recent installment of “This Is Retail” from the National Retail Federation.

Click here to hear from Attica Jacques, Andrea Shimer and Kendra Maleiro began their careers began and what they are doing now.
 

New Orleans Saints quarterback and Texas native Drew Brees will become mayor for the day of Comfort, Texas, on July 23 when the small town is temporarily renamed Advanced Comfort as part of a promotion for a new line of Wrangler jeans.

In celebration of the launch, Wrangler will kick off a community-based initiative striving to improve towns across America that begins on Wednesday, July 23, when the town of Comfort is renamed Advanced Comfort for six months.

San Jose, Calif. - For the month of June, soccer-related searches across the U.S. sites of eight international sporting goods and apparel retailers increased by 280%, compared to May. According to analysis from SLI Systems, there were more than 2.2 million U.S. soccer-related product searches from these eight e-commerce sites alone, with a corresponding boost in online shopping behavior during June for products including soccer cleats, balls, shin guards, gloves and other equipment.

Yonkers, N.Y. - Forest City Ratner Companies, the developer and owner of Westchester’s Ridge Hill mall in Yonkers, New York, is adding an indoor skydiving facility, one of only 14 in the U.S.

IFly Indoor Skydiving will break ground this fall with an estimated completion date in early 2015.

San Francisco - Shopper traffic declined 9% in June, compared to the same month the previous year, as vacations, holidays, and record-breaking World Cup viewership cannibalized time spent on shopping-related activities. According to data from in-store analytics provider Euclid, despite the reduced traffic, high levels of consumer confidence boosted shoppers’ spending habits with .2% growth year-over-year in general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other (GAFO) retail sales

New York -- Retail sales generally improved in June, helped by good weather and big discounts as retailers look to clear inventory for the back-to-school season.
 
Costco Wholesale Corp. reported a 6% increase in June same-store sales, helped by higher fuel prices. Its results topped Wall Street estimates.

Excluding the impact of foreign exchange rates and gasoline prices, Costco’s same-store sales increased 6% for the five-week period ended July 6. The metric rose 5% in the United States and 7% overseas.  

Matthews, N.C. -- Family Dollar Stores’ third quarter income plunged 33% amid higher costs and increased competition. Same-store sales fell 1.8%, which marked the third straight quarterly decline.

Family Dollar is under pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn to put itself up for sale. The company has adopted a shareholder rights plan, or "poison pill."

Sales and marketing services leader Crossmark unveiled a first-of-its-kind collaboration center on July 10 just steps from Walmart’s Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters. The new facility offers the retailer and its trading partners a wide range of joint business planning, shopper insights and store execution capabilities.

Augusta, Georgia — Ben Carter Enterprises will break ground in December on the Outlet Mall of Georgia at Augusta, an 800,000-sq.-ft. fashion outlet mall slated to open in spring 2016.

Ben Carter’s announcement comes on the heels of a key land agreement reached with the owners of the Georgia Theatre Co., who agreed to reposition their theatre to accommodate the mall.

New York -- Ron Johnson, who has been keeping a low profile since he was ousted from J.C. Penney in April 2013, made a rare guest appearance at Stanford University. Johnson, a graduate of Stanford and a member of its board, was a guest speaker at the university's View From the Top series in May, where he discussed with Stanford Graduate School of Business students Penny, Apple and Target and the lessons learned over his career in retail.