Marketing Tactics

Atlanta -- Teavana Inc. on Monday said it will buy Canadian tea retail chain Teaopia Ltd. for $26.9 million in cash. It is Teavana's first major acquisition since it went public last year.

Teaopia operates 46 stores, primarily in high-end malls across Canada and online. Last year it generated net sales of approximately $17 million and opened 12 stores.

Teavana operates 200 company-owned stores in 39 states, including one store in Canada, and 18 franchised stores primarily in Mexico, as well as through its website.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — DreamWorks has become the latest studio to offer its titles through Walmart's in-store, disc-to-digital service powered by Vudu. At more than 3,500 Walmart stores, customers can convert such DVD and Blu-ray titles as Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon into digital copies that can be accessed from any web-enabled device.

Walmart and healthcare partner Humana are out with a new prescription drug program called Rx4Value that guarantees saving and relies on the proven strategy of improving affordability by restricting choice to generic drugs.

Fort Worth, Texas -- Trademark Property said Wednesday it has purchased two retail centers located directly across from La Palmera mall in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The 15.5-acre Staples Center, built in the 1980s, and the 3.8-acre Mt. Vernon Center, built in the 1940s, will undergo rebranding along with a major redesign and renovation, scheduled to begin late 2012 with completion slated for 2013.

The redeveloped center, to be named The Shops at La Palmera, will total approximately 200,000 sq. ft.

HINGHAM, Mass. — Talbots' fourth-quarter loss widened to $53.2 million, or 77 cents per share, from last year’s loss from continuing operations of $2.8 million, or 4 cents per share. 

Fiscal year 2011 loss from continuing operations was $111.8 million, or $1.62 per share, compared with last year’s income from continuing operations of $7.6 million, or 11 cents per share. 

Reacting quickly to an early spring, Brentwood, Tenn.-based Tractor Supply Co. said its first-quarter sales increased 22% to $1.02 billion.

Same-store sales for the quarter increased 11.5%. The country’s largest farm-and-ranch retailer, which will release its full first-quarter earnings results April 25, said the same-store sales increase was driven, in part, by early spring weather in 2012.

By Seth Sarelson, [email protected]

In 2009, Terry Lundgren, the CEO of Macy's, gave the keynote address at Shop.org, discussing how “the power of e-commerce extends far beyond the keyboard and right onto the sales floor.” Lundgren went on to say that Macy’s believes that $5 billion of in-store sales is influenced by the Internet.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — American Greetings is launching a new line of cards featuring designs from noted artist Mary Engelbreit later this year as part of an ongoing collaboration. The greetings will be included in seasonal programs beginning this Halloween and sprinkled across everyday programs by the end of the year.