Retail

New York - RKF has arranged two leases totaling 2,680-sq.-ft. at 1200 Madison Ave. on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with beauty retailer Bluemercury and upscale Scotland-based knitwear company Brora. The new Bluemercury, scheduled to the week of Oct. 6, will occupy 1,705-sq.-ft. and will be the brand’s second location on the Upper East Side.

Mars Chocolate North America is bringing back M&M's Crispy Milk Chocolate Candies to store shelves in January 2015, following a 10-year absence.
 

Pittsburgh – Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. is opening three remodeled stores on Oct. 12. The stores are located in Toledo, Ohio, Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

The Toledo Store measures 50,000 sq. ft. The Gaithersburg store is located in Washingtonian Center and measures more than 100,000 sq. ft. The Wilkes-Barre store is located in Arena Hub Plaza and measures 45,000 sq. ft.

Elmsford, N.Y. - Party City has promoted Gregg A. Melnick to the position of president of Party City Holdings, effective immediately. Party City Holdings is the parent company of the Party City Retail Group and Amscan Inc., among other entities.  

Most recently, Melnick was the president of the Party City Retail Group. Melnick will partner with all of the key department heads across both the retail and wholesale divisions to provide the leadership to strengthen the brands and create opportunities for greater collaboration.

Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in Illinois on Oct. 11. The stores are located in Hickory Point Mall in Decatur and Times Square Mall in Mount Vernon.  

The new openings are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.  

Together, Ross Dress for Less and dd’s Discounts currently operate over 1,300 off-price apparel and home fashion stores in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Guam.

New York -- Nordstrom is searching for about 250,000 sq. ft. of space in which to open a full-line store in downtown Manhattan, Women’s Wear Daily reported. Saks Fifth Avenue recently announced it will open downtown, as an anchor in Brookfield Place.

Nordstrom is scheduled open its first full-line store in the Big Apple, on 57th Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, in 2018.

Spending on consumer electronics this holiday season is projected to reach a record level of nearly $34 billion as shoppers clamor for ultra high definition televisions, smart watches, tablets and a new crop of smartphones.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) predicts the 2014 holiday season will see the highest levels of consumer spending on consumer electronics since the group began tracking the category two decades ago. The trade group’s holiday outlook envisions total tech spending increasing 2.5% to $33.76 billion.

New York -- The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether a Muslim woman who was denied a job at an Abercrombie & Fitch Co. store because she wears a head scarf was required to specifically request a religious accommodation at the time of her job interview.

The court agreed to hear an appeal filed in the case by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that sued the retailer on behalf of Samantha Elauf, who was denied a sales job at an Abercrombie Kids store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, back in 2008.