Events

Richardson, Texas -- Wingstop has announced plans to aggressively expand its presence in the Atlanta area. The fast-growing national chicken wing chain plans to add 20 additional locations in Atlanta over the next several years.

The expansion effort begins with an Atlanta open house April 20-21 where franchise candidates will have an opportunity to learn about Wingstop's plans and meet one-on-one with company executives.

Wingstop has 480 locations throughout the United States and Mexico.

NEW YORK -- Uniqlo, a subsidiary brand of Japan-based Fast Retailing Co., announced that it will open its third New York City location at 31 West 34th Street this fall. The 34th Street store is set to open late in the fall of 2011, following the opening of the company's largest flagshop store on Fifth Avenue in early fall. Uniqlo operates a store in NYC's trendy SoHo neighborhood.

In conjunction with the news of its NYC expansion, Uniqlo announced plans to hire 1,000 retail associates and 100 supervisors from the local tri-state area.

NEW YORK -- Showing that luxury is experiencing measurable bounce in the recovering economy, the higher-end department stores led the same-store sales pack in March.

Saks outperformed the rest of the category, recording an 11.1% same-store sales increase during the month. Total sales rose 9.2% to $260.2 million, compared with $238.2 million in the year-ago period.

New York City -- Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo said Thursday it will open its third New York City location.

The new store, on 34th Street, set to open this fall, following the opening of the chain’s largest flagship location on Fifth Avenue earlier in the fall. Both stores will join the current Uniqlo location in Manhattan’s Soho district.
 

A new Harris Poll EquiTrend study out this week shows Target, not Walmart, as the Value Retail Brand of the Year. That would be bad enough news for Walmart given the company’s prospects in the United States are closely tied to its reputation for low prices, but this is the second year in a row Target has been named the top Value Retail Brand and the gap with Walmart even widened this year.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Thursday by the National Retail Federation and conducted by BIGresearch found that spending on food, gifts and apparel is expected to increase this Easter.

According to NRF’s 2011 Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, the average consumer is expected to spend $131.04 on everything from candy to clothes -- up from last year’s $118.60, but still not quite meeting pre-recession spending levels.

Total spending on Easter-related merchandise is expected to reach $14.6 billion.

Salem, Ore. -- Anthropologie and the Cork Forest Conservation Alliance (CFCA) announced a joint initiative in all 153 Anthropologie stores in the United States and United Kingdom to increase awareness and promote the preservation of Mediterranean cork forests, one of the planet’s most important ecosystems.

Coral Springs, Fla. -- Sephora at J.C. Penney will open a 1,500-sq.-ft. location at Coral Square Mall, in Coral Springs, in mid-April. Francesca’s Collections is also slated to open in mid-April.

Coral Square Mall, owned by Simon Property Group, features anchor stores Macy’s/Ladies Apparel, Macy’s/Men's, Children & Home Store, J.C. Penney and Sears, as well as more than 120 specialty stores and eateries.