Events

New York -- Express staged a fashion show on Friday in New York City's Times Square, providing the specialty retailer with a promotional platform to preview upcoming collections.

Male and female models showed off the retailer's Holiday 2013 collection, which is not scheduled to hit stores for a few months yet, as part of an ad campaign shoot.

"The Holiday 2013 collection is really about a lot of sparkle, shine, glamour and obviously New York City," said Express president David Kornberg.

RACINE, Wis. — For the fourth year in a row, SC Johnson will be the major sponsor of the 11th annual free backpack giveaway at the mayor's back-to-school Stay-in-School festival Monday, Aug. 19, from 2-6 p.m. at Festival Park in Racine, Wis.

Students in grades K-12 will receive a free backpack filled with age-appropriate school supplies.

Seattle -- REI announced plans to open a store in Knoxville, Tenn., in fall 2014.

The 23,500-sq.-ft. store, at Papermill Plaza, will include a bike shop that provides expert assembly and repair services, and a community space to host outdoor-related classes, presentations and events.

Indianapolis – H.H. Gregg is opening a new store in Bloomington, Ind. on Aug. 15. The new location at 240 North Gates Street will replace the previous location at 606 West Gourley Pike.

Gaithersburg, Md. — Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg, Md., today announced a $1.2 million renovation plan. Improvements will include a reconfiguration of the center court, a new and improved children’s play area and new furniture for the food court.

Work will level the 5,245-sq.-ft. center court to create a space that will host community events such as the Lunar New Year Celebration, Summer Camp Expo and holiday promotions. Center court renovations will finish up by early November.

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — Kohl’s Department Stores has donated $2 million throughout a three-year period to the Milwaukee Art Museum to continue the Kohl’s Art Generation program, a youth art education initiative.

New York -- Gap is celebrating its brand heritage with a fall global marketing campaign – Back to Blue – that is one of the broadest reaching in its history. The campaign spans outdoor, direct, social, in store, digital and also includes a return to television.

CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif. — Newegg Inc., a leading electronics-focused e-retailer, is getting set to open its first-ever popup store from August 16-18 in The Oaks shopping center in Thousand Oaks, Calif. 

Newegg's exclusive store event will feature more than 70 products for showrooming, including Intel-inspired Ultrabooks, 4th generation Intel Core i7 laptops, Sony VAIO laptops, tablets, digital cameras and wireless speakers, Samsung tablets and solid-state drives and WD hard drives and personal cloud storage devices.

San Bruno, Calif. -- Walmart.com is giving fans of its Facebook page early access to a "Back to Class Cyber Monday" event being held Monday, Aug. 12. Customers will receive online discounts of up to 60% on close to 300 back-to-school items ranging as high as almost 60%, while supplies last. Fans of Wal-Mart’s Facebook page can gain early access to the sale by visiting the page on Sunday, Aug. 11 and clicking a special link.

Boston – Retailers trying to successfully attract business from back-to-school shoppers need to understand the different types of customer segments they must target. According to a new report from social media analytics software provider Crimson Hexagon, back-to-school consumers fall into five broad categories based on how they broadcast their goals, choices, experiences, and opinions about back-to-school shopping on social media.

The five types of social back-to-school consumer are: