Retail

San Diego -- As part of a restructuring, Sony Electronics announced plans to close 20 U.S. Sony stores, along with a total staff reduction of one-third by the end of the calendar year.

San Francisco – PBTeen, a Williams-Sonoma banner aimed at young consumers, has launched a design blog aimed specifically at teens. The vision of the blog, known as The Stylehouse, is to give tweens and teens a place to find design inspiration and fuel their budding imaginations for home décor.

Content will be created by PBteen editors, brand ambassadors and curated blogger partnerships. The blog will focus on four primary channels of decorating, celebrating, dorm, and behind the scenes.

WTI expects March 2014 to trend similar in temperature to last year and below normal for the U.S. as a whole. The month starts out with cold, possibly record-breaking, in the North along with some potentially snowy and/or icy weather as a storm system moves through. Colder trends linger into the second week of the month, but toward St.Patrick’s day, temperatures look to take a turn toward trending warmer than last year.

By Carrie Smith, [email protected]

It is undeniable that fast-casual restaurant chains in North Florida and South Georgia are resuming their expansion plans. The local unemployment rate ended 2013 under 6%, home building permits jumped nearly 30%, and car sales climbed — all signs of an improving local economy.

Aventura, Fla. -- Aventura Mall, in the Miami suburb of Aventura, plans a significant expansion that will include a new three-level, 241,000-sq.-ft. retail wing and parking garage. Construction is expected to begin in 2014.

Located between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Aventura Mall currently measures 2.7 million sq. ft.

WalmartLabs, Walmart’s online and digital development division, has acquired Seattle-based recipe technology startup Yumprint to expand its online grocery delivery services.

Yumprint has a website and mobile app to search and discover new recipes from thousands of food blogs, plan meals and calculate nutritional information.

In a blog post, WalmartLabs credited Yumprint founders Chris Crittenden and Wes Dyer for their vision on how technology can improve how “all of consumers discover and prepare our meals.”

New York -- Sears Holdings’ CEO Eddie Lampert strongly defended his company in his annual letter to shareholders, saying not only does he believe Sears is headed in the right direction, but that “the entire retail industry is headed to where we already are.”

New York – Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who released an open letter criticizing the board of EBay for conflicts of interest on Feb. 24, has released a second open letter outlining what he calls six facts about questionable decisions by the current EBay board.