Department Store

New York City -- Off-price retailer Daffy’s is launching an expansion push, including opening a store in Manhattan’s Times Square in the former home of the New York Times, Crain’s New York Business reported.

The 28,000-sq.-ft. Times Square store, to be located on West 44th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, is slated to open fall 2011. The store will have a ground-floor entrance, but the bulk of the space will be on the basement level.

The largest retailer most people have never heard of — The Army & Air Force Exchange Service, or AAFES — has updated its store brand identity and design. The brand is now simply called the Exchange and has a new tagline, “You Save, We Give Back,” that conveys the organization’s competitive prices and mission to provide annual dividends to the Army’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation and Air Force Services programs.

Purchase, N.Y. -- A report released Tuesday by MasterCard Advisors said that increased spending in most categories produced a strong holiday season for retailers, with e-commerce and apparel faring the best. Retail sales from Nov. 5 through Dec. 24 rose 5.5% to $584.3 billion over the same period last year, according to MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse. The figures, which exclude auto sales, are ahead of industrywide projections for a 3.3% to 4% rise for the holiday selling season.

New York City -- Sunday’s east coast snowstorm disrupted sales throughout the entire area and disrupted one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Sections of New York and New Jersey got as much as two feet of snow over the past few days, keeping many shoppers at home. Spending may shift into January, Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD Group, told Bloomberg on Monday.

“Look for sales to be repeated by retailers. They’re going to be more aggressive,” Cohen said.

New York City -- A report released Monday by Advisor One said that while it’s still too early to know the final outcome of the Christmas shopping season, it’s already clear that it’s been a record season for online retail.

The age old question of what to get the person who has everything has finally been answered, and a Walmart gift card appears to be the ultimate solution for the perplexed gift-giver. That’s according to the gift card exchange website www.giftcardrescue.com and survey involving 6,000 people who created gift card wish lists on its site since the beginning of the year.

As holiday promotions heated up in November and shoppers hit the Internet, there was a 44% surge in traffic to Walmart.com when compared with October, according to the online measurement firm comScore. The growth propelled Walmart to the 20th spot on comScore’ November ranking of the top 50 U.S. Web properties. The nearly 52 million unique visitors Walmart.com attracted in November 2010 was 5% more than in November 2009, according to comScore’s data.

Niles, Ill. -- Tuesday Morning has signed a lease for 20,000 sq. ft. at Village Crossing in Niles, Ill., a North Shore suburb of Chicago.

According to Oakbrook Terrace-based Mid-America Asset Management, the exclusive leasing representative for the center, Tuesday Morning plans to open in January 2011 as a new anchor, joining Dick’s Sporting Goods, Jewel/Osco and Pier 1 Imports.