Department Store

Off price retailer Marshall’s has teamed up with television personality Maria Menounos to promote the treasure hunt atmosphere its stores offer shoppers.

Menounos, best know for her appearances on Extra! and Access Hollywood, has seen her share of red carpets and touts the fact that Marshall’s stores are a great destination for similar looks and what she refers to as "fabulous finds."

New York -- Network with peers from leading retail and restaurant companies at SPECS, the industry’s premier store development and facilities event.

Produced by Chain Store Age, the 49th annual SPECS conference will be held March 17-20, at the Hilton Anatole Hotel, Dallas. 

Click here to register. 

New York -- Target Corp. is shuttering — at least for now — its “The Shops at Target” concept, which showcased exclusive goods from select independent boutique retailers within in-store shops in Target stores, the Star Tribune reported.

“At this time, we don’t have plans for a future ‘flight’ of the Shops at Target, but we do have a number of collaborations planned for 2013 and beyond,” spokeswoman Katie Boylan said in the report.

NEW YORK — Foot Locker's fourth quarter profit rose to $104 million from $81 million a year earlier.

Sales jumped 14% to $1.71 billion, including the benefit of an extra week. Same-store sales rose 7.9%.

For fiscal year 2012, which included 53 weeks, the company reported net income of $397 million, compared to $278 million a year earlier.

Total sales increased 9.9% in 2012 to $6.182 million, compared with sales of $5.623 million last year. Same-store sales were up 9.4% in 2012.

BURNABY, B.C. — Best Buy has named Ron Wilson as its new president and COO of its Canada operations, effective immediately. In this role, Wilson will lead the business in Canada under the Future Shop and Best Buy brands, including online.

NEW YORK — Ann Inc. reported fourth quarter earnings per diluted share of 5 cents, compared with earnings per diluted share of 4 cents in the fourth quarter of 2011.

For the full year of fiscal 2012, the company reported record earnings per diluted share of $2.10 , an increase of 28% compared with earnings per diluted share of $1.64 in the full year of fiscal 2011.

Seattle -- Nordstrom announced two new locations for Nordstrom Rack, with stores planned for Chicago and Jacksonville, Fla.

In Jacksonville, Nordstrom Rack will open in The Markets at Town Center in Jacksonville, Fla. The approximately 35,000-sq.-ft. store is scheduled to open in fall 2013.

The announcement follows recently announced plans to open a Nordstrom full-line store at St. Johns Town Center in fall 2014. Nordstrom currently operates nine full-line stores and eight Rack stores throughout Florida.

New York -- After nearly three weeks of testimony, a New York State Supreme Court Judge ordered Macy's, J.C. Penney Co. and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia into mediation to try and reach a settlement in their contract dispute trial.
 
If the three companies do not reach an agreement before April 8, the judge will resume hearing the case.
 
In another development in the ongoing dispute, Penney agreed not to sell certain Martha Stewart-designed goods (products deemed exclusive to Macy’s) until at least April 8.