Williams-Sonoma Inc.

SAN FRANCISCO — Parent company Williams-Sonoma said that its PBteen banner will open its first store in southern California, at The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks Saturday, June 1.
 
The store will be anchored around a PBteen Design Lab, where teens and their parents can engage with the brand and its products by digitally creating a personalized room on a computer monitor. Using drag and drop technology, teens can experiment with different room configurations and color combinations and see it come to life on a television screen overhead.

San Francisco -- Parent company Williams-Sonoma said that its PBteen banner will open its first store in southern California, at The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks on Saturday, June 1.
 
The store will be anchored around a PBteen Design Lab, where teens and their parents can engage with the brand and its products by digitally creating a personalized room on a computer monitor. Using drag and drop technology, teens can experiment with different room configurations and color combinations and see it come to life on a television screen overhead.

Brooklyn, N.Y. -- Home furnishing retailer West Elm, owned by Williams-Sonoma, will open a store in King of Prussia, Pa., on May 16.

The 8,406.-sq.-ft. store will be the second West Elm store in Pennsylvania, following the Philadelphia store.

By Douglas H. Meal, David T. Cohen, and Lisa L. Rachlin, Ropes & Gray LLP

Retailers, like all businesses, constantly seek to learn more about their customers in order to serve them better. In Tyler v. Michaels Stores, however, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that a simple step taken by many retailers to help achieve this goal – collecting the ZIP codes of their customers at the point of sale – can in some circumstances violate Massachusetts’ consumer protection statute.
   

SAN FRANCISCO — Janet Hayes, currently the president of Pottery Barn Kids and PBteen, will become president of the Williams-Sonoma brand, effective March 20. She replaces Richard Harvey, who will be leaving the company on May 3, 2013, after 30 years of service.

NEW YORK — Yomari and Predictix will join forces to deliver merchandising and analytics solutions to large and midsize retailers.

Yomari is a leading independent professional services company focused exclusively on analytics, business intelligence and data warehousing for the consumer value chain. Its customers include Dressbarn, Gander Mountain, Petco, REI and Williams-Sonoma.

Minneapolis -- Best Buy has hired Sharon McCollam, formerly CFO of Williams- Sonoma Inc., as CFO, beginning Dec. 10.

McCollam, 50, had been COO and CFO at the home goods retailer before retiring. She also takes the title of chief administrative officer at Best Buy.

McCollam replaces James Muehlbauer, who said he was leaving in October. Muehlbauer will continue to advise the company until the end of the fiscal year in February.