Costco Wholesale Corp.

New York — With just 85 stores, Rochester, New York-based Wegmans Food Market edged past online giant Amazon to take the top spot for corporate reputation among the 100 most visible companies, according to the 16th annual Harris Poll Reputation Quotient study.

Harris Poll expanded the list to 100 companies this year, up from 60, to offer deeper insight by industry. As a result, three of this year’s top 10 companies are debuting on the list, including No. 1 Wegmans, No. 7 L.L. Bean and No. 8 Publix Supermarkets.

Costco’s same store sales flat-lined in January, disappointing many analysts who had expected a 1.2% increase.  

Issaquah, Wash. -- Costco Wholesale Corp. has declared a special one-time dividend of $5 per share that will result in approximately $2.2 billion being returned to shareholders.  

In its mostly recently reported quarter, Costco posted a 17% increase in profits, driven by lower gasoline prices and strong growth in store sales and membership fees.

Jet and Boxed are two online retailers taking aim at the warehouse club channel and drawing increased funding from venture capitalists who believe the channel is vulnerable.

New York-based Boxed has raised $33 million and operates three physical warehouses in the Northeast that shoppers interact with digitally. It does not charge a membership fee.

Jet charges a membership fee and functions more like a marketplace by providing a platform for third party sellers.

New York -- Teen retailers had a “less dreadful” holiday selling season than was anticipated. That’s how analysts are tempering the news that banners such as American Eagle Outfitters, Aeropostale and Urban Outfitters posted stronger-than-expected holiday results, released by most on Thursday.

In fact, say industry watchers, the strong sales figures look pretty shiny because they are exaggerated by pre-season low expectations, which were dragged down by fears of aggressive discounting and waning mall traffic.

By Dave Weinberger, CBX

Have you read any 2015 retail trend forecasts lately? Let’s face it, many so-called trends for the year ahead — the need to focus on things like mobile payment, customization, foodservice, smaller formats or millennial shoppers, to name a few — are at this point just the cost of doing business.

Costco showed again in December why it’s the cream of the crop among warehouse club stores.

The Wash.-based retailer reported an increase of 8% in same store sales in the United States, excluding gasoline sales and foreign exchange. Same-store sales at international stores rose by 1%.

Net sales for the retailer rose 5% to $12.12 billion in December from $11.53 billion a year earlier.

Costco showed again in December why it’s the cream of the crop among warehouse club stores.

The Wash.-based retailer reported an increase of 8% in same store sales in the United States, excluding gasoline sales and foreign exchange. Same-store sales at international stores rose by 1%.

Net sales for the retailer rose 5% to $12.12 billion in December from $11.53 billion a year earlier.

Online warehouse club operator Green Polka Dot Box has a quirky name, but shoppers don’t seem to mind as the natural foods retailer’s December sales increased 65 percent.

"Based on early sales results, we anticipate that customer growth in this first month of the year will increase from the current level of approximately 4,200 to more than 6,000," said Rod Smith, CEO of the company. "And that we will see corresponding increases in monthly sales in January.”

Seattle -- Nordstrom plans to open a Nordstrom Rack at Ambassador Town Center in Lafayette, Louisiana.

The 25,000-sq.-ft. store is scheduled to open in spring 2016. The more than 425,000-sq.-ft. Ambassador Town Center is a joint development of Stirling Properties and CBL & Associates Properties.