Displays & Signs

New York City -- Many retailers reported solid sales gains for December, but the deep discounts and promotions that shoppers have come to expect cut into profits.  A range of retailers, including Target and The Children’s Place, reduced their, reducing their earnings outlooks. Overall, retail sales rose 3.4% at the 22 retailers tracked by the Thomson Reuters same-store sales index, compared with the 3.3% analyst forecast.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears announced that it has completed a number of initiatives designed to reinforce itself as a fitness leader. 

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — In what might become an additional indicator as to the power consumers can wield across retail through social media outlets, Wegmans on Wednesday reinstated Alec Baldwin as the company's spokesman.

Wegmans had pulled its Baldwin holiday advertising campaign in response to consumer complaints about Baldwin's behavior on an American Airlines flight Dec. 6, a flight from which he was removed for refusing to turn his cell phone off.

San Jose, Calif. -- Orchard Supply Hardware Stores Corp. announced that its spin-off from Sears Holdings Corporation was completed at 11:59 p.m. EST on December 30, 2011. Trading of Orchard’s Class A Common Stock will begin Tuesday on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “OSH”.

REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.) has opened its first Manhattan location, in the landmarked Puck Building in SoHo. The 35,000-sq.-ft. space (14,000 sq. ft. of selling space) has been restored to honor the iconic building’s more-than-century-old history — with a respect to detail evident throughout. How did REI come to select the Puck Building?

Mall barricade systems have evolved greatly in recent years, in terms of both the way they are engineered to their graphic applications. Perhaps the biggest change has been the transition from drywall barricades to modular ones. Chain Store Age spoke with Bob Putnam, president of Boston Barricade Co., Vero Beach, Fla., about the latest trends in barricades. 

How have mall barricades evolved over the years?

CHATSWORTH, Calif. — Rite Aid is planning to roll out 3-D holographic display kiosks in its stores next year, according to the kiosks' manufacturer.

In a letter to shareholders, Provision Interactive Technologies president and CEO Curt Thornton wrote that it would place its 3-D Reward Centers in Rite Aid stores, starting with 200 locations and, according to the agreement between the two companies, eventually installing the kiosks in up to 4,800 stores. Rite Aid currently has 4,679 stores.

It’s a new year, and with it comes the opportunity for a fresh start for retailers as well as consumers. As in new years past, I’m inundated with a flurry of trend forecasts, surveys and predictions. One of the more interesting ones to cross my desk comes from JWT, New York, one of the world’s biggest marketing communications brands. It is the firm’s seventh annual year-end forecast of trends that will impact consumer behavior going forward.

Yonkers, N.Y. -- The Consumer Reports Holiday Poll released Wednesday found that a quarter of adults in the United States had yet to begin their holiday shopping as of Dec. 19, compared with 17% last year.

Of those who haven't started shopping yet, 54% cited lack of enough money as a reason, 41% still believe they have plenty of time, while 29% are in procrastination mode.

New York City -- From the shimmering windows at Harrods in London to the gold-draped storefront at Gucci in New York, Chain Store Age has put together a collection of the best of this year’s holiday windows from around the world.

Click here to view our slideshow and prepare to be transported.