Seasonal

DALLAS — Neiman Marcus is getting set to deck its flagship downtown Dallas location in gold and pink to celebrate beauty brand Mary Kay's 50th anniversary.

Known for its high fashion window displays, Neiman Marcus — which is headquartered in Dallas — has dedicated four of its windows to the brand's milestone and to its founder, Mary Kay Ash.

IRVING, Texas — Holiday shifts adversely affected quarter-to-date performance at Michaels Stores, which reported net sales of $631 million for the nine-week period ending July 6, a decrease of 0.1% from $631.8 million for the comparable period last fiscal year. 

Same-store sales for the same fiscal period declined 2.7%. The company's quarter-to-date performance was also adversely affected by the timing of media activity due to the impact of the 53rd week in fiscal 2012. However, as a result of the shifts, the company has seen improvement in July sales performance.

Chattanooga, Tenn. — CBL & Associates Properties has announced that Dunham’s Sports has leased a 60,200-sq.-ft. space in Randolph Mall in Asheboro. N.C. Scheduled to open for the 2013 holiday shopping season, the new Dunham’s will replace Dillard’s, which closed in late July.

Belk, J.C. Penney, Sears and Cinemark theatre anchor the 380,000-sq.-ft. regional Randolph Mall.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. — Hasbro reported net revenues of $766.3 million for the second quarter ended June 30, a 6% decline compared to $811.5 million in 2012. Despite seeing growth across its girls, games and preschool categories, it was not enough to offset a decline in the company’s boys category. 

New York – U.S. consumers spent more last month as real home prices and initial unemployment claims continued to improve. The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index for June 2013, which comprises four components of tax burden, initial unemployment claims, real wages and real home prices, increased to 4.3 from a reading of 4.2 the previous month.   
Following is a summary of the four main components of the Index:

Tax Burden: The tax rate is up from last year, and is now at 12%.

HUDSON, Ohio — Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores is turning 70, and to mark the special anniversary the specialty fabric and craft retailer is launching a “Share Your Story” sweepstakes on its Facebook page. 

Customers share their favorite Jo-Ann memories and each week, from July 28 through August 19, two random entrants will be chosen to win $100 Jo-Ann gift cards for a total of six winners. No purchase is necessary to enter or win.

New York -- The National Football League has signed an exclusive agreement with Export Now to establish an official online store in China. Similar to its current U.S. e-commerce store, NFLShop.com, the China iteration will sell apparel, equipment and accessories branded with the logos of the NFL and its 32 teams over an e-commerce platform on China's Tmall.com business-to-consumer website.

The new online store is slated to debut in September, in time for the 2013 NFL season.

New York -- Fashion designer and retailer Kenneth Cole is partnering with the Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots on the launch of a limited-edition capsule shoe collection arriving in stores for the holiday season.

To promote the launch, a designated area in front of the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street in Manhattan) will encourage passersby to try and win a pair of Kinky Boots tickets by following @kennethcoleprd and @kinkybootsbway and Instagraming a photo of their "kinky" shoes using #KCKinkyboots.

Columbus, Ohio – John C. Martin, executive VP and chief merchandising officer of Big Lots Inc., intends to retire his position with the company. Martin will continue in his current capacity until his successor is appointed, and he has committed to provide guidance through May 2014.

Big Lots has retained SpencerStuart to conduct a search of external candidates to succeed Martin.

Washington, D.C. – U.S. retail and food services sales totaled $422.8 billion last month, according to new advance estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. This represents a 0.4% increase from $421.2 billion in the prior month, and a more substantial 5.7% increase from $399.9 billion in the same month last year.