Events

On the heels of a healthy yet modest holiday shopping season, cautious consumers aren’t quite ready to splurge on Valentine’s Day this year, continuing to keep their budgets in check.

Amazon did a bit of Valentine’s Day data mining of sales of romance novels and sexy music to come up with its fifth annual list of the nation’s top 20 romantic cities. And people are worried about the NSA’s activities?

St. Petersburg, Fla. -- The United Entertainment Group (UEG), a global entertainment and marketing agency, has been chosen by HSNi to become its marketing partnership agency of record.

As part of the deal, UEG and its partner UTA (United Talent Agency) will utilize its combined presence in Hollywood and on Madison Avenue to build upon HSNi's ongoing foray into integrating entertainment and retail by building partnerships that consist of celebrity brands, music platforms, television and film collaborations, and like-minded brand partnerships.

R.G. Barry Corporation’s chairman of the board Gordon B. Zacks died at his Bexley home following a brief illness. He was 80.

Zacks joined his family's business in 1955 after attending Dartmouth College and graduating from the Ohio State University. He joined the board of directors in 1959 and was named company president in 1965. He added the roles of chairman of the board and CEO to his resume in 1979. Following retirement from his day-to-day management roles in 2004, he was named the company's non-executive chairman of the board, a post held until his death.

Dennis Hernreich, EVP, COO and CFO of Destination XL Group, has resigned and board member John E. Kyees has been named interim CFO. In addition, the company has elected Will Mesdag, 60, to its board of directors.

Kyees, who has served on the Destination XL board of directors since 2010, was CFO of Urban Outfitters from 2003 until his retirement in 2010, and has served as a senior financial executive at several other prominent retailers. The company is conducting a search for a permanent CFO.

Washington, D.C. – The National Retail Federation (NRF) is scheduled to testify before a Senate committee the week of Feb. 3, as lawmakers begin to look into criminal attacks in which millions of consumers’ credit and debit card numbers were stolen.

New Albany, Ohio – Abercrombie & Fitch is launching a spring 2014 marketing campaign that includes omni-channel features such as live Twitter Q&A sessions with celebrities. The campaign, “The Making of a Star,” spotlights a select group of rising actors and musicians.

Minneapolis - Target plans to open a new store in the city of Kahului on the island of Maui in Hawaii, in March 2015. The store will be located as part of the Pu‘unēnē Shopping Center.

This will be the first Target store in Maui.