Department Store

Newport Beach, Calif. — Lucescu Realty said it has opened a new regional office in Phoenix, its second office outside its California headquarters. The company recently opened a Las Vegas office and plans to open a San Francisco presence by year-end 2011.

In other company news, Lucescu Realty said it completed the sale of The Promenade in Scottsdale, for $110 million.  Lucescu Realty represented the seller, a local private investor, and procured the buyer, Excel Trust of San Diego. 

Shanghai — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced it has appointed its current Canada finance chief Sean Clarke as COO over the company’s China operations, after former CFO Roland Lawrence and COO Rob Cissell left the company in May.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Clarke will be joined by Steve Smith, named chief marketing officer in China. Smith was senior VP at Delhaize Group. 

The debate over whether online retailers should be collecting sales tax is one of those “level playing field” issues that puts traditional brick and mortal retailers at a disadvantage. Or does it?

Washington, D.C. — A report released Thursday by the U.S. Commerce Department showed that retail sales in June experienced a slight uptick of 0.1%. This comes on the heels of a 0.1% dip in May, the first time in 11 months that sales fell. 

The June resurgence was attributed to a rise in auto sales and increased spending in big chain stores. Sales excluding gasoline rebounded 0.3% after declining 0.2% in May.

Sales at general merchandise stores, which include Wal-Mart and Target, increased 0.4% on warmer weather and aggressive discounting. 

Major retailers collectively dialed back the number of ads inserts and the number of pages in June when compared to the prior year, according to Market Track. The company each month provides RetailingToday.com with an exclusive look at the promotional activity among 16 of the nation’s leading retailers and the interesting statistic that stands out it June is a huge increase in the number of ad pages that hit the market. Click here for a review of promotional activity.

Dallas -- Tuesday Morning Corp. reported Wednesday that revenue for the quarter ended June 30 declined 3% to $194.8 million, compared with $200.8 million in the year-ago period.

Same-store sales dropped 4.5% in the quarter.

The closeout retailer cut its guidance for the year.

For the full year, revenue dipped almost 1% to $821.3 million. Same-store sales fell 1.2%.
 

Atlanta -- RedPrairie Corp. announced that Grupo Comercial Control, parent company to Woolworth Mexico and other well-known retail brands, won Mexico's annual National Award for Logistics for its successful implementation of a WMS integral strategy based on the RedPrairie Warehouse Management solution.

Indianapolis -- Hhgregg announced Tuesday that it will open 10 new stores in south Florida, launching simultaneous grand-opening celebrations on July 14.

The new stores located in Miami, Broward and Palm Beach counties bring the total number of Hhgregg stores in Florida to 33, according to the retailer. The openings are in the communities of Aventura, Boca Raton, Ft. Lauderdale, Hialeah, Pembroke Pines, Miami, Plantation, Jensen Beach, East Wellington and West Palm Beach.