Retail

New York -- Fast casual Burger 21 has opened franchised stores in the Atlanta suburb of Buford, Ga., and Charlotte, N.C.

The company plans to open 15 to 20 more franchised units in Atlanta plus another 10 franchised restaurants in Charlotte over the next few years.

Peoria, Ill. — Bar Louie Restaurant & Bar has signed for 6,500 sq. ft. at Streets of St. Charles in St. Charles, Mo., according to developer, manager and owner Cullinan Properties. Bar Louie will move into its first floor Phase II space next spring.

Construction of the development’s 400,000-sq.-ft. Phase II will finish up this fall. Phase II will house the retail and entertainment portions of the project as well as additional residential space to complement Phase I.

Is there an archetypal Las Vegas shopping center? How about Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas?

“A Las Vegas shopping center should feature a range of shopping, entertainment and dining options that appeal to the wide audience the city attracts,” said David Edelstein, co-owner of Miracle Mile Shops.

“The stores should stay open late and bars and restaurants even later,” he continued. “Always keep an eye on trends and what shoppers are responding to.”

Boston -- Japanese retailer Yummie House is piloting a new mobile rewards solution at 10 stores in Shanghai, China. Yummie House is using a joint application from Appconomy and ByteLight that combines the cloud-based Appconomy Platform mobile marketing platform solution with ByteLight light field communication (LFC) technology.

Hayward, Calif. – Posiflex is unveiling a roadmap of new POS, digital signage and wireless terminals at the RetailNOW conference in Las Vegas next week. The products include the Posiflex HS All-in-One solution, a 10-inch POS touch-screen terminal including a three-inch printer that can be configured to include an MSR, smart card reader, fingerprint sensor and a range of secondary customer displays.

The Woodlands, Texas – Conn’s Inc. is opening a Conn’s HomePlus store in Phoenix. The location marks the specialty chain’s second store in the Phoenix metro market and third store in Arizona.

Conn’s operates 72 retail locations, with 58 in Texas, six in Louisiana, three in each Arizona and Oklahoma, and two in New Mexico.

New York -- CIT Group Inc., the largest commercial lender in the U.S. apparel industry, has stopped supporting deliveries from smaller manufacturers to J.C. Penney stores, the New York Post reported on Wednesday.

The reason for the crackdown could not be immediately confirmed, the report said, but insiders speculated that CIT got nervous after getting a peek at Penney’s financials.

New York -- The Jones Group Inc. swung to a loss in the second quarter as the company was challenged with lower sales, weaker margins and higher costs.

Jones Group reported a loss of $3.4 million for the second quarter, compared to a profit of $8.1 million in the year-ago period.

Revenue decreased 1.1% to $845.6 million from $855 million for the second quarter of 2012. Analysts estimated revenues of $832.06 million for the quarter. One bright spot for Jones Group was an almost 21% year-over-year increase in wholesale jeanswear sales.