Winter Holidays

Santa Monica, Calif. — Macerich is collaborating with HGTV, a home and lifestyle cable network, to create Santa HQ, an interactive holiday experience, at 10 Macerich malls. The initiative aims to add digital and social media to the traditional holiday experience of visiting Santa.

New York -- DreamWorks Animation is looking to bring a little bit of Hollywood magic to the nation's shopping malls. The film studio has developed a high-tech Santa Claus  experience, billed as "DreamHouse," that it hopes to roll out to malls for the holidays, with two developers, Forest City and General Growth Properties already buying in, the New York Times reported.
    

New York — M-A-C Cosmetics has signed a long-term lease at 853 Broadway in Manhattan’s Union Square, according to The Feil Organization, the building’s owner and manager. RKF represented M-A-C in the lease negotiations. The retailer plans to open in time for the 2014 holiday shopping season.

M-A-C will occupy a space on the ground floor and project a two-level storefront plus 14 ft. of frontage along 14th Street, giving it excellent visibility.

Wayne, N.J. — Toys “R” Us reported a net loss of $196 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014, up from a $111 million net loss in the year-ago period, amid a decrease in income tax benefit and  rise in expenses that included investments in e-commerce and U.S. store maintenance. But the struggling retailer saw its sales improve.

The drought’s effect on fresh produce in California and the timing of this year’s Easter holiday adversely affected 99 Cents Only Stores’ comparable-store sales in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.

Same-store sales decreased 0.5%, calculated on a comparable 13-week period of the prior year. The company reported net sales of $477.9 million, an increase of 7% from $445.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014.

Dollarama said that its first-quarter results were adversely affected by challenging weather conditions, but the company reported continued growth in sales and net earnings.

Canada's leading dollar store operator of 899 locations across the country reported sales for the quarter of $501.1 million, an 11.8% increase from $448.1 million in the prior-year periord. The increase in sales was driven by the growth in the number of stores in the past 12 months and strong Easter sales and continued organic sales growth driven by comparable store sales growth of 3.3%.

Persistent winter weather took a bite out of Stein Mart’s net income in the first quarter, but the retailer rallied once the weather improved. It closed the quarter with total and comparable-store sales increases, and the upward trend has continued through May.

The company reported total sales for the four-week period ended May 31 of $109.6 million, a 2.2% increase over total sales of $107.3 million for the four-week period ended June 1 last year. Comparable store sales for the month increased 0.4% from comparable store sales for the same month last year.

Washington, D.C. -- The average person will spend $113.80 on neckties, tools, electronics and other special gifts for Father’s Day, slightly down from $119.84 last year, according to NRF’s 2014 Father’s Day Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. Total spending for the holiday is expected to reach $12.5 billion.