Seasonal

Sam’s Club is at it again this weekend. Attempting to persuade members to upgrade to the $100 Plus membership level by dangling the additional savings possible via the eValues program in front of them during a key seasonal sales occasion. The program is innovative and convenient in that money-saving offers are loaded directly onto members’ cards, but encouraging upgrade activity in the current economic climate is quite challenging, even when the immediate savings available via the eValues program more than offset the additional membership fee.

Plymouth Meeting, Pa. -- Fameco Real Estate, L.P. announced that Visionworks, a division of Eye Care Centers of America, has signed four new leases in the Central Pennsylvania region as part of its store roll-out campaign.

Each of the new stores is slated to open in late summer 2011. The stores will be located at The Viewmont Mall in Dickson City, Silver Spring Shopping Center in West Harrisburg, Mill Creek Shopping Center in Lancaster and Delco Plaza in York.
 

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Sam's Club announced that all of its members can take advantage of its eValues program for savings on select items through July 4. 

"Just in time for Independence Day, we are offering all members freedom to sample our eValues and find everything they need for the holiday," said Mike Turner, SVP membership at Sam's Club. "From TVs and computers to hamburgers, cheese trays and pork barbecue, we are celebrating with summer savings.

Featured products and savings include:

Leveraging the social and mobile channels to present a unified cross-channel experience is one of the keys to maximizing online holiday sales this year, according to the IBM Coremetrics Fourth Annual Online Retail Holiday Readiness Report.

PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK — Women are the majority spenders in the juvenile products market, accounting for 77% of total dollars spent, while nearly half of all dollars spent come from parents buying for their own children, according to The NPD Group.

Buyers ages 25 to 44 account for 57% of dollars spent on juvenile products, while more than half (55%) of the dollars spent in the juvenile products market comes from occasion-based shopping such as childbirth, baby showers, and adoption.

During a question-and-answer style interview in Monday’s USA Today, Target chairman, president and CEO Gregg Steinhafel shared his thoughts on a wide range of topics including Walmart, inflation, designers and competition.

Italian luxury brand Missoni hits target stores this fall (Sept. 13 to Oct. 22) and like a lot of the edgier designer exclusives the retailer brings into its stores you have to wonder about the degree of brand awareness among the Target faithful. Missoni certainly sounds like it could be an Italian luxury brand, but then the same thing could be said of Mossimo, Merona or any brand that ends in a vowel.

Huey Lewis and the News are scheduled to perform a free concert in Fayetteville, Ark. on Sept. 9, in connection with the women’s professional golf tournament known as the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G. The Grammy Award winning entertainer will be performing at the M&M’s/Extra Dickson Street Concert. The 8 p.m. concert will be held in the Walton Arts Center parking lot located at 495 W. Dickson Street in Fayetteville.