Retail

GAINESVILLE, Fla - More than 40 major retail chains, including The Home Depot, Walmart, Kroger and Target, formed a specialized research council to facilitate the use of science to curtail theft and violence. As part of this effort, A specialized University of Florida research team has been formed to interviews offenders, analyzes large datasets, and conducts field experiments to adapt and devise new crime control methods and technologies.  

Think young shoppers want to buy everything online? New research from Teen Vogue suggests otherwise.

Teen Vogue asked its millennial readers about their holiday shopping habits and findings related to all manner behaviors throw cold water on the notion that malls are dead or dying.

  New York - Online marketer Rent the Runway has signed a lease to open a store in Chicago. It will be the third freestanding store for the company, with one in New York City, and one in Washington, D.C. The company also operates a shop inside the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.   Rent the Runway  rents designer dresses for four days or eight days. Prices range from $30 to $450 for four-day rentals, depending on the dress. It also rents jewelry, handbags and other accessories. 

By Joe Majka, Verifone   President Obama’s BuySecure Initiative sets the U.S. Government on track to adopt chip and PIN payment security, parallels - and seeks to encourage - a commercial industry shift toward EMV card technology.    

Oakland, Calif. - Cost Plus World Market has renewed its use of the GT Nexus platform, providing real-time visibility into global inventory movement and performance information. Finance, sourcing and logistics departments are networked over a single cloud platform, connecting more than 1,000 suppliers and logistics providers to collaborate on production and delivery of goods.   

Bounty created new sales opportunities for retailers by putting its “quicker picker upper” heritage to the ultimate test as sponsor of the 14th Annual AKC/Eukanuba National Championship.

If there is ever a time when a paper towel brand doesn’t want to betray the trust of consumers it’s when they are cleaning up after their beloved pet. So what better place to put the capabilities of the Bounty brand to the test, and create sales opportunities for retailers in the process, than by sponsoring one of the nation’s largest dog shows.

Despite the rollout of its new “Go Taller” initiative, 99 Cents Only Stores reported a decline in same store sales and profits in the third quarter.

Same store sales decreased 0.7% compared with the prior year quarter. The company reported a loss of $3.8 million in the third quarter, compared to posting an income of $1 million in the prior year quarter. Net loss as a percentage of total sales was -0.8% for the third quarter compared with net income as a percentage of sales of 0.2% for the third quarter of fiscal 2014.

New York – Activist investor fund Starboard Value has reportedly purchased a 6% stake in Staples Inc. and upped its ownership of Office Depot from 8.6% to 10%. According to the Wall Street Journal, Starboard Value may be positioning itself to pressure the two office supply retailers to merge.