Winter Holidays

Puyallup, Wash. — WiggleWorks Kids has leased a 4,500-sq.-ft. space for an indoor playground and birthday party center in the South Hill Mall in Puyallup, Wash. WiggleWorks will open the first week in December. It will be WiggleWorks second playground. The first is in Bellevue, Wash.

In addition to the playground, the WiggleWorks offers a semi-private part room equipped with a small kitchen for birthday parties, community gatherings and family gatherings.

When it found the performance of a legacy data-processing system lagging too far behind the pace of its business, Alpharetta, Georgia-based The Original HoneyBaked Ham Co. of Georgia, Inc. decided to investigate more current options. Difficulties keeping up with the flow of transactional data from its 115 corporate stores and 200 franchise locations during the 2011 holiday season marked the turning point for the retailer.

Indianapolis – Hhgregg will hire 500 qualified home appliance and electronics sales associates in preparation for the holiday shopping season for its 228 stores. The company is accepting applications through the end of September and will be hiring for stores in the Midwest, South, Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes regions.

Wayne, N.J. -- Toys "R" U widened its loss in the second quarter on lower sales at its stores in the United States and Europe. The company reported a loss of $113 million, compared with a year-earlier loss of $36 million.

Net sales for the quarter, ended August 3, dropped 6.9% to $2.38 billion. Same-store sales declined 3.5% in the U.S. and 3.8% abroad. The retailer attributed the decline primarily to decreases in the juvenile and entertainment (which includes electronics, video game hardware and software) categories.

By Anna Convey, OpenSpan

Chicago -- Retail sales are forecast to rise 2.4% during the holiday season of November and December while total retail traffic will decrease 1.4% as compared to the year-ago period, according to ShopperTrak, a leading provider of shopper analytics. The company also notes that retailers have less time to capture peak holiday spending: There are only 25 days lie between Black Friday (Nov. 29) and Christmas this year, compared to 31 days in 2012. And unlike last year, consumers have only four (not five) full weekends to shop.

New York – The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index, which tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending, slightly dipped in August.

New York – Cloud-based e-commerce, mobile apps and mobile wallets are among the most important IT trends affecting retailers as they enter the 2013 holiday shopping season.

Verizon Communications, Inc. has compiled a list of the biggest IT trends for this year’s holiday season. Following are highlights:

As the winter season approaches, Burlington Coat Factory experienced overall sales growth that led to a comparative store sales increase of 7.8% for the second quarter ended Aug. 3.

Total net sales increased 11.5% to $963.7 million for the months quarter compared with last year.

“We are proud of our second quarter results including 11.5% overall sales growth and, most important, our 7.8% comparative store sales increase. I would like to thank our store and corporate teams for contributing to these results,” said Tom Kingsbury, president and CEO. 

Wayne, N.J. -- Toys “R” Us is updating its in-store shopping experience and expanding its omnichannel initiatives for its more important selling season. The retailer detailed its plans on Thursday at a special holiday preview event in New York City.

Starting in October, Toys “R” Us will expand and enhance product categories that have experienced sales growth over the past few years, notably education, tablets and construction, while reducing the space dedicated to areas that have underperformed over time.