Department Store

NEW YORK — Macy's has announced Teen Vogue as the latest fashion-forward collection to launch exclusively in Macy's Mstylelab department. Aimed at the most discerning teenage fashionistas, Teen Vogue will bring Macy's customers the latest trends from the combined fashion eye of Macy's and "Teen Vogue." The collection will be available in approximately 150 Macy's stores nationwide and on macys.com this March. 

New York -- Retail spending in the United States rose a better-than-expected 1.1% in February, the highest increase since September, according to figures released Wednesday by the Commerce Department.

Sales, excluding gasoline, building materials and autos, rose 0.4%. Industry experts said that consumer spending is holding up even in the face of the higher payroll tax.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. said it has completed the sale of its entire consumer credit card portfolio to TD Bank Group for $5.7 billion, the gross value of the outstanding receivables at the time of closing.
 

WASHINGTON — The Department of Commerce reported that retail sales for the month of February rose by 1.1% seasonally adjusted month to month.

The newly released figures include nongeneral merchandise categories, such as automobiles, gas stations and restaurants; excluding those, sales rose 0.7%, while rising 0.5% unadjusted year over year. The National Retail Federation noted that sales beat estimates as consumers adapted and adjusted spending in response to higher gas prices and the payroll tax increase.

February 2013 marked a declining trend in number of inserts per market for the some retailers, but due to big increases at Macy’s (+48%) and Staples (+100%), the overall count of inserts per market across all retailers was actually up 4.3%. Home Depot (-50.0%) was the only retailer witnessing a major fall, whereas the other retailers showed only minor declines. Of the remaining retailers that did not see a decrease, five had no change in the number of inserts per market, while three (including Macy’s and Staples) increased.

Chicago -- Despite all the headlines about Canadian and global growth, U.S. expansion remains a key growth strategy for retailers, according to a survey of 100 retail chief financial officers by BDO USA.  
   
In the seventh-annual BDO Retail Compass Survey of CFOs, 30% of the executives said U.S. expansion will be their priority growth tactic in 2013, followed by improving merchandise assortment (24%) and e-commerce and mobile commerce (22%).
   

YORK, Pa. — The Bon-Ton Stores reported that its net income for the fourth quarter was a better-than-expected $74.4 million, compared with $78.2 million in the year-ago period.

Revenue for the three months ended Feb. 2 increased 3.2% to $1.02 billion, missing the Street’s view of $1.04 billion. Same-store sales increased 1%. (Results for the fourth quarter and fiscal 2012 are impacted by the inclusion of an additional week in each period, resulting in a 14-week and 53-week reporting period.)

New York -- Another day, another J.C. Penney story. Amid rumors that Penney chief executive Ron Johnson was stepping down, the chain flatly denied the allegations.

“Ron Johnson is not quitting or resigning from J.C. Penney and he has no plans to do so,” Joey Thomas, a Penney spokesman said in an e-mail reported by Bloomberg. “The rumors are false.”