Legislative, Regulatory & Legal

New York -- Eminence Capital, a 4.9% stakeholder in Jos. A. Bank and a 10% shareholder in Men’s Wearhouse, said it supports Men's Wearhouse's proposed acquisition of the company and demanded that Jos. A. Bank's board sit down and engage in "meaningful, good faith negotiations."

Efforts to merge the two retailers have dragged on for months, with each chain having their offers to acquire the other rejected.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how the retail industry has supposedly settled a federal lawsuit with Visa and MasterCard over credit card swipe fees.

The nightmare continued for Target on Friday as worse than expected fourth quarter same store sales prompted the company to slash its profit forecast while it made troubling new disclosures about the theft of information involving 70 million customers.

You’ve got to hand it to Amazon.com. While consistently turning a profit has eluded Amazon for the past 18 years, the company has consistently taken a lead in disrupting retail. Whether it’s inventing e-commerce as a mainstream B2C transactional channel, taking a leading role in hosted cloud services with Amazon Web Services or helping to usher in the tablet era with Kindle e-readers, Amazon.com has never been afraid to do things in a way that alters how retail business is conducted.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia – The United Nations reportedly wants the Cambodian government to investigate the use of force against striking garment factory workers in the country’s capital city of Phnom Penh on Jan. 3. According to Reuters, police opened fire on workers striking over their pay, wounding 20 and killing five.

In addition, 23 striking workers were detained and their whereabouts remain unaccounted for. The Cambodian police say three people were killed and they are sorry for the incident.

New York -- Hess Retail Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of global energy company Hess Corporation, has filed a Form 10 Registration Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The form contains a preliminary information statement about the potential terms and conditions of a spin-off of Hess Retail Corporation to the stockholders of Hess Corporation.

New York -- After almost 93 years, off-price specialty retailer Loehmann's is going out of business.

On Jan. 7, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan approved an order authorizing a joint venture formed by SB Capital Group, LLC, Tiger Capital Group, LLC, and A & G Realty Partners, to conduct "Going Out of Business" sales in each of Loehmann's 39 locations in 11 states and the District of Columbia.  

New York -- The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited fashion retail chain Forever 21 for exposing employees to safety hazards at its stores in Paramus, N.J., and Manhattan. OSHA inspected both stores in July after receiving complaints alleging violations and proposed $236,500 in penalties.