Home Improvement

Now that retailers such as Amazon.com are entering the online services market, Angie’s List is looking to fortify its executive ranks by tapping a veteran retail e-commerce executive to run the company.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; max-height: 100000px; color: rgb(54, 54, 54); font-family: open_sansregular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(2

The True Value Company family has expanded with the addition of Pittsburgh-based Busy Beaver Home Improvement Centers.

Ikea will open the largest Ikea store in the United States in Burbank, Calif., next year.

The new store, on 22 acres along Interstate 5 in Burbank, be 456,000 square feet (the biggest Ikea in the world, at 594,000 square feet, is in Stockholm). Plans include parking for 1,700 cars, "improved access and parking and a larger warehouse space," plus "50 'inspirational room-settings,' three model-home interiors, a supervised children's play area and a larger restaurant for serving Swedish specialties."

Milpitas, Calif. – Lowe’s Companies Inc. is strengthening its support of the ZWave wireless Internet of Things (IoT) standard.

Lowe’s has joined The Z-Wave Alliance, a global consortium of more than 325 member companies, with its Iris smart home solution.

Launched in July 2012, Iris by Lowe's is a smart home solution created to monitor and control virtually everything in the home anytime, anywhere from a computer, smart phone or tablet.

Burbank, Calif. -- Ikea on Wednesday broke ground on a new store that is located less than one mile away from the company’s first-ever store in California and oldest location in the Western United States.

Ikea is building a new, larger store in Burbank, California. Until it opens on the new site in spring 2017, customers can continue to shop at the existing 242,000-sq.-ft. Ikea in Burbank, which was its sixth overall U.S. store and opened in November 1990.

Recent turmoil in the stock market hasn’t dimmed Best Buy’s outlook for the third quarter while the release of better than expected second quarter results has validated the company’s strategy, according to CEO Hubert Joly.

Strength in categories such as major appliances, large screen televisions and mobile phones, offset by weak tablet sales, helped Best Buy achieve a 2.7% domestic same store sales increase and pushed revenues up 3.9% to $7.9 billion during the second quarter ended August 1. Online comparable sales increased 17%.

Retailers open spaces dedicated to the connected home

Sears and Target have looked into the future (a future that some would say is already here) of residential living, and it’s “connected.” The two retailers have both opened spaces that showcase the concept of the connected home — a house where, put simply, appliances and accessories come with digital sensors that connect to the Internet and can be controlled from anywhere via a smartphone.

These so-called “smart” devices span a range of categories, from washers and refrigerators to safety and

Fall inspections key to prepping HVAC systems for colder temps

It’s only September and still technically summer. But calendar aside, it is time to start prepping HVAC systems for the colder days ahead.

Oddly enough, most retailers start to prepare for the summer season months ahead of the first 95-degree day. Plans are developed to schedule the HVAC spring inspections well in advance, so when the first heat wave hits, stores will be ready to start pumping cold air to keep their customers very comfortable.