Retail

Carle Place, N.Y. – Net loss at 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. grew to $10.81 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2015 from $1.74 million in the same quarter the prior year. Higher operating expenses in areas including marketing and sales and technology and development helped boost net loss.

New York -- High-profile retailers can make a high-impact difference when they use their clout to do good.  

Case in point: Ann Inc., parent to Ann Taylor and Loft, donated more than $4.3 million to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to fund groundbreaking cancer research. The brands parlayed successes from the 2014 spring and fall campaigns and have brought the company's total corporate donation to $22.3 million in the past 10 years.

New York -- According to NRF’s 2015 Mother’s Day Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, Americans will spend an average of $172.63 on mom this year, up nearly $10 from $162.94 last year and the highest amount in the survey’s 12-year history. Total spending is expected to reach $21.2 billion.

Colorado Springs, Colo. -- Fuel price management software company PriceAdvantage announced a software integration with P97 Networks’ PetroZone Retail Fuels Module (RFM) powered by Microsoft Dynamics AX modern point-of-sale system (mPOS).

Cincinnati -- Kroger said Monday that it has ended a 12-year joint venture with British consumer data company Dunnhumby and launched its own customer data subsidiary.
 
The new subsidiary will help Kroger set prices in stores and decide which shoppers get certain coupons.  The ending of the joint venture comes after Dunnhumby's parent company, Tesco PLC, said it was seeking strategic options for Dunnhumby.

Sunbury, Pa. — Weis Markets has promoted Brent Mertes to regional VP where he will oversee the day-to-day operations of 51 stores located in South Central Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia.

He will report to David Gose, senior VP, operations.

By Xavier Giandominici, FIME America

The U.S. is migrating to EMV chip technology to reduce counterfeit card fraud and promote global interoperability. And though the transition is more than three years in, many small and midsized merchants, VARs, ISOs and ISVs are only starting to learn about the EMV standard and beginning implementation project plans.

New York -- The National Association of Chain Drug Stores announced during its Annual Meeting, the election of new officers, four new executive committee members and five new board of directors member for the coming year.
 
Randy Edeker, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Hy-Vee will serve as the new NACDS chairman of the board of directors. Edeker succeeds John Standley, chairman and chief executive officer of Rite Aid.