Department Store

Tokyo – Uniqlo opens new stores in Berlin, and in three U.S. locations on Friday, April 11. The 2,700-sq.-ft., three-story Berlin store is located on the Tauentzienstrasse shopping boulevard and is Uniqlo’s first German store.

The Berlin store is also the largest Uniqlo store in Europe and features revolving mannequins wearing origami headdresses and LED ticker-tapes listing all the cities where Uniqlo has stores around the world.

New York – Total U.S. retail sales during 2013 reportedly reached $4.53 trillion, a 4.2% increase from$4.35 billion in 2012. According to new data from EMarketer, e-commerce sales of $263.3 billion, up 16.9% from $225.3 billion the prior year, helped drive overall retail sales growth.

Non-e-commerce sales totaled about $4.27 billion, a 3.5% increase from $4.12 billion in 2012. In 2014, EMarketer predicts that e-commerce sales in rhe U.S. will grow 15.5% to total $304.1 billion, or 6.4% of total retail sales of $4.73 billion.

Columbus, Ohio – Lane Bryant opens two new stores Friday, April 11. The stores are located at Burnsville Center in Burnsville, Minn., and Alliance Town Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

Lane Bryant operates 775 stores nationwide and an e-commerce site.

Sandton, South Africa – Grant Pattison, CEO of Massmart Holdings Ltd., a South African retailer that operates as a subsidiary of Wal-Mart, is resigning. Pattison, 43, will be replaced by Massmart COO Guy Hayward, 48, on June 1, as part of what the company terms a smooth succession plan.

Pattison joined Massmart in 1998 and was appointed CEO in 2007. He was CEO when Massmart sold a majority stake to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Hayward has served with Massmart since 2000, receiving appointments as CFO in 2001 and COO in 2012.

Philadelphia – Destination Maternity Corp. reported declining net and same-store sales for the second quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to the same period a year earlier. Net sales decreased 6.5% to $126.1 million from $134.9 million, while same-store sales dropped 5.1%.

Destination Maternity said the decline in net sales resulted primarily from the decrease in comparable sales and decreased sales related to the company's continued efforts to close underperforming stores.

New York -- March was a so-so month for retailers, whose performance was impacted by unspring-like, cold temperatures in many parts of the country and a late Easter. (Easter falls on April 20 this year as opposed to March 31 last year.)

The eight retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters posted a 2.2% increase in March same-store sales, better than the expected 1.4% increase.

New York – Ann Inc. has signed a long-term renewal agreement with Alliance Data Systems Corp. to continue providing private label and co-branded credit card services. Alliance Data will continue to deliver marketing-driven private label and co-branded credit card programs that recognize and reward Ann Taylor and Loft card members.

Ann Taylor and Loft brands are marketed in approximately 1,025 stores across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico through its Ann Taylor, Loft, Ann Taylor Factory and Loft Outlet stores, as well as globally online.

Redlands, Calif. — Majestic Realty Co. has announced that construction has begun on the Mountain Grove at Citrus Plaza shopping center. Located adjacent to Citrus Plaza in the Inland Empire at the intersection of the I-210 and I-10 freeways, Mountain Grove plans to open in summer 2015.

The 468,000-sq.-ft Phase I development is the sibling project to Citrus Plaza. It will add another 670,000-sq. ft. of retail, dining and entertainment.