Research Topic

New York – Tiffany & Co. grew net earnings 50% in a successful first quarter of fiscal 2014. Net earnings increased 50% to $126 million, up from $84 million in the same period a year earlier, aided by the elimination of pre-tax charges relating to staff and occupancy reduction.

Worldwide net sales grew 13% to $1.01 billion, from $895.48 million. Worldwide same-store sales rose 11% due to growth in most regions.

Rand Corporation has appointed former Bloomingdale’s chairman and CEO Michael Gould and Paul Kaminski, who has held high-level posts in U.S. Department of Defense, to its board of trustees.

“Michael Gould and Paul Kaminski are talented leaders and each has a passion to help Rand deliver rigorous and objective analysis to policy and decision makers in all corners of the world,” said president and CEO Michael D. Rich. “I know they will be valuable additions to our governing board.”

Despite seeing increases in net income and sales for the first quarter, TJX — parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshalls — experienced weakness in apparel sales and missed analysts’ expectations.

Net income for the quarter was $454.32 million, compared to $452.89 million from the prior-year quarter. Net sales increased 5% to $6.49 billion from $6.19 billion, but were weaker-than-expected — analysts were anticipating $6.6 billion.

Same-store sales remained flat.

Boulder, Colo. - Trader Joe’s is North America’s favorite grocery retailer based on satisfaction. A study of more than 6,200 consumers by Market Force Information, also found that Publix and Aldi were ranked second and third.

Stockholm, Sweden - The Analysis Division of Tobii Technology is launching Tobii Glasses 2, a wearable eye-tracking research system in the world. Based on a new, proprietary, wearable eye-tracking platform from Tobii that will support research and consumer applications, Tobii Glasses 2 offers wireless live viewing.
Key new features of Tobii Glasses 2 include:

Houston – Stage Stores Inc. reported a net loss of $18.79 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014, up from a net loss from $6.86 million in the same period a year earlier. Net sales slightly declined to $372.04 million from $372.1 million, while same-store sales decreased 0.2%.

New York - Nearly a quarter of packages purchased online and tested during a six-month period did not meet the basics for adequate shipping. In a study spanning six months of data, conducted from October 2013 to March 2014, StellaService Analysts placed 2,855 orders with 125 leading online retailers to measure the quality of the shipping and returns experience.

Washington, D.C. – Organized retail crime (ORC) is down slightly from 2013 but still a pervasive problem. According to the National Retail Federation’s 10th annual Organized Retail Crime Survey, which polled 76 senior retail loss prevention executives, eight-in-10 (88.2%) retailers report that they have been a victim of ORC in the past year, down slightly from 93.5% in 2013.