Retail

Warren, Mich. – Art Van Furniture is adding its seventh Chicagoland location in Downers Grove. Renovations are set to begin to transform the two-story 106,000-square-ft. building into a new store scheduled to open in January 2015.

In November of last year, Target opened a popup store featuring an exclusive collection of bath and body products by Sonia Kashuk in New York’s Grand Central Terminal. Now the retailer is preparing to launch an exclusive line of Sonia Kashuk makeup, beauty tools and cosmetic bags in March.

Boca Raton, Fla. – Office Depot has named Michael A. Steele as VP, investor relations, effective immediately. Steele reports to Stephen E. Hare, executive VP and CFO.

Steele will develop and execute Office Depot’s investor relations strategy, serving as the primary interface for management with the financial community. He plans to relocate to the Office Depot corporate headquarters in Boca Raton in the coming months.

Best Buy’s defense of its market share proved costly during the holidays as greater-than-expected price cuts caused same-store sales to decline 0.9%, resulting in significant margin erosion and a vow to accelerate cost-cutting efforts in 2014.

Total sales for the nine-week period ended Jan. 4 declined slightly to $11.5 billion, with the domestic segment accounting for $9.75 billion of those sales. While domestic same store sales fell 0.9%, the company can take some comfort in the fact that its online comps increased 23.5%.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Holdings has signed a sublease with Dick's Sporting Goods to occupy a portion of its second floor at the King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pa. The two-story anchor building will be renovated with Sears maintaining exterior entrances on both levels and the mall entrance on level one.  

Lifetime Brands, manufacturers of brands such as Farberware, KitchenAid and Guy Fieri, has acquired Thomas Plant (Birmingham) Limited.

Duluth, Ga. -- Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores has selected NCR Corp. to install NCR point-of-sale software and technology in its more than 300 locations across 39 states.

Traditionally, Love’s has replaced a quarter of their POS devices each year. But the retailer decided a complete refresh of 1,800 devices to solid state technology with greater processing power and screen size, gives them an immediate ability to create a better customer experience across their footprint.
 

Jewel-Osco president William Emmons is retiring less than a year after taking the helm at the grocery chain, which is now part of New Albertsons Inc., according to a Chicago Tribune report.