Department Store

One of the retail industry’s true innovators, Staples co-founder Tom Stemberg, passed away on Friday at the age of 66.


Stemberg, who died at home after a two-year battle with gastric cancer, was considered the father of the office superstore format. With the backing of Bain Capital and its co-founder, Mitt Romney, he co-founded Staples in 1986, and went on to lead the company through a period of rapid growth to dominate the office products industry.

Century 21 Department Store will bring its high-fashions and low prices to a new location in the suburbs.

The company will open an approximately 70,000-sq.-ft., two-level store at Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York, on the South Shore of Long Island. The location will be the company’s tenth location.

In what promises to be the most omnichannel Christmas ever, Kohl’s contends it will offer shoppers a seamless experience that is faster and more convenient that ever.

Veteran apparel retailer Tracy Gardner will join the Gap Inc. board, effective Nov. 11.

Gap has relied on Gardner on multiple occasions the past 25 years as an employee and advisor. Gardner worked at the company from 1991 to 1994 in various creative roles and from 1998 to 2004 in senior leadership positions, including head of Gap adult merchandising. This past year she served as an advisor to the Gap brand and functioned in a similar role in 2012.

The Bon-Ton Stores announced it will close its Elder-Beerman stores in the Huntington Mall in Huntington, West Virginia and the Lima Mall in Lima, Ohio. The retailer said it will not renew the stores’ leases, which terminate January 31, 2016.

Additionally, Bon-Ton is closing its namesake store in the Carousel Center in Syracuse, New York, upon its scheduled lease termination on February 28, 2016.

The company said it does not expect costs associated with the closing of the locations to be material.

Bloomingdale’s is bringing its tech-savvy, updated smaller-store format to the world’s largest open-air shopping mall.

The retailer open a store in Honolulu, on the Island of O’ahu, on Nov. 12. The location — Bloomindale’s first in Hawaii — will serve as the centerpiece of a major retail expansion at Ala Moana Center.

Williams-Sonoma has entered into an agreement with Mexico’s leading department store retailer to open stores in that country.

Williams-Sonoma said it will open 13 stores across its various brands — Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen and West Elm — In Mexico City, by the end of 2015. The stores are opening through a franchise partnership with Mexican department store retailer Liverpool.

It’s not like the holidays weren’t going to be challenging enough, but now Amazon.com is expanding its free same-day delivery service to more markets.

Amazon.com said it expanded it Prime free same-day delivery to Chicago and Orlando and new locations in the greater New York, northern New Jersey and Philadelphia area. The service, which does require an annual $99 Prime membership fee, is now available in 750 cities in 16 metropolitan areas. It launched in May.