Retailer Campaigns

New York -- J.C. Penney Co. on Wednesday unveiled an advertisement on Facebook that asks customers to return to its stores. The ad will air Wednesday and Thursday on national television, as well as on Penney’s social media platforms.
   

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp. reported upticks in net income, sales and same store sales for first quarter fiscal 2013. Net income grew from $156,000 to $7.5 million.

Net sales were $246.5 million, up from $218.3 million a year earlier, while same-store sales rose 10.5%. First quarter sales improved despite the negative impact of the calendar shift of the Easter holiday, when the retailer’s stores are closed.

Ocean Springs, Miss. - A new e-commerce site providing hanging kitchen pot racks and wall racks, HangingintheKitchen.com, opens today.

The site continually updates inventory and also offers social media pages on Twitter and Facebook that offer product reviews, special offers and tips.

Memphis -- Specialty restaurant operator Perkins Restaurant & Bakery is launching a store remodeling initiative that will include more than 20 corporate locations in the first half of 2013 and then expand to franchise locations.

The remodel package, designed by Louis & Partners Design, will encompass external and internal changes. Perkins operates 416 restaurants in 34 states and Canada.

PHILADELPHIA — Five Below, a leading retailer of extreme-value merchandise for teens and pre-teens, is once again teaming up with Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation to raise money to help children with cancer. 

Sesame Street has tapped Parham Santana, The Brand Extension Agency, to help it refresh its licensed consumer products packaging worldwide.

Parham Santana developed unified packaging designs that focus exclusively on the iconic Sesame Street characters. The branding agency said it recognized the instant, emotional connections to the characters that people across countries, cultures and channels have with them, and chose to emphasize them, eliminating what it described as the marketing clutter prevalent in existing packaging.

GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. — Dollar General and Procter & Gamble are teaming up to honor a Florida mom as its official Every Day Hero for the month of May.

Residents of tony Hilton Head Island, S.C., are getting the one thing they don’t currently have: a Kroger Marketplace, situated in the sprawling 42-acre mixed-use project under development by Kroger Real Estate and Blanchard & Calhoun Commercial.