Events

NEW YORK — Barnes & Noble will offer teachers a special holiday shopping event Saturday, Dec. 1.

Educators who shop at their local Barnes & Noble store or at www.bn.com and present a valid Barnes & Noble Educators Discount Card will receive special discounts on select merchandise.

New York -- Ann Inc. on Wednesday reported net income was $40.7 million in the third quarter of 2012, versus $32.3 million in third quarter 2011. The company also increased its outlook for the full year of fiscal 2012.

Total net sales for quarter were $612.5 million, compared $564.0 million in the year-ago period. By brand, net sales across all channels of the Ann Taylor brand totaled $244.6 million compared with net sales of $229.7 last year At the Loft brand, net sales across all channels were $368.0 million, compared with $334.3 million last year.

Plano, Texas -- J.C. Penney said Tuesday it has launched its nationwide Holiday Giving Tour, which entails a 12-day giving spree during which the retailer carries out acts of generosity in a new city each day.

Events include Christmas tree lighting, ice skating, Santa visits and tobogganing.
 
The tour kicks off Nov. 27 with a live holiday performance by Grammy Award-winning artist John Legend, followed by free ice skating, skate rentals and hot chocolate in Manhattan's Citi Pond at Bryant Park.

Change — how to make it happen and effectively manage it — topped the agenda at Chain Store Age’s 10th annual Executive SPECS conference. Executives from some of the nation’s leading retail and restaurant chains and suppliers and service providers in store planning, construction and facilities management attended the event, which was held in November at Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa, Las Vegas.

Abysmal sales at J.C. Penney haven’t deterred the company from pursuing a series of unique cause marketing activities around a potential new holiday tradition focused on giving back.

Not even a hurricane named Sandy could erode the economic upsurge experienced by the northeastern United States over the last year. What this region rebuilt after the Great Recession has managed to stay strong even in the face of Sandy’s 80-mph winds, record flooding and the damage inflicted by its nor’easter sister that arrived just days after the fall 2012 hurricane.

NEW YORK — On Wednesday, Nov. 28, Chainstoreage.com will unveil an exclusive and revealing look at how shoppers felt — what turned them on and off — on two of the busiest and most critical retail days of the year: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The Holiday Shopper Sentiment Report: Black Friday and Cyber Monday Consumer Face-Off by SAP will explore real-time trends and insights that will inform the next generation of retail.

Chicago -- ShopperTrak reported Tuesday that it estimates retail foot traffic over the Black Weekend shopping period rose 8.2% year-over-year. That equates to more than 594 million store visits between Thursday and Monday.

Retail sales increased 2.7%, with shoppers spending about $22 billion across the weekend's four days. Thursday's "door-buster" deals drove sales and traffic earlier in the weekend.