Department Store

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Hometown & Outlet Stores Inc. posted declining profits and revenues in a generally difficult second quarter of fiscal 2015.

The retailer plans to close 40-50 underperforming stores by the end of the year, on top of 63 underperforming locations closed in the first half of 2015.

The new Star Wars film awoke a promotional force of epic proportions over the weekend, but now retailers are faced with daunting task of driving sales of merchandise tied to a movie that won’t hit theaters for more than three months.

More than 3,000 retail locations in the U.S. opened at midnight on Friday to unveil aisles of new merchandise tied to the upcoming “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” film, according to Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media.

Plainfield, Ind. -- Mid-America Real Estate Group announced that its corporate investment sales team recently brokered the sale of The Shops at Metropolis located in Plainfield, Indiana. Chicago-based Core Equities purchased the 131,195-sq.-ft. center anchored by Burlington Coat Factory and The Room Place.

Joe Girardi and Rick Drogosz of Mid-America Real Estate Corporation were the brokers in the transaction on behalf of Dallas-based Tabani Group.

Armonk, N.Y. – Consumers are mobilizing for back-to-school shopping in a very literal way.

Mobile sales were up nearly 42% in August, reaching 25.3% of all online sales, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark data.

During this time, consumers also used their mobile devices to browse deals, with traffic accounting for 49.4% of all online traffic, up more than 19% compared to the same period year.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation continues to turn up the heat on the Labor Department’s proposal to expand overtime pay.   

Austin, Texas – Labor Day is supposed to be a day of rest, but consumers are planning to work at shopping for the upcoming Labor Day holiday Sept. 7.

According to a recent RetailMeNot-Kelton survey, two in three (67%) people planning to spend money this Labor Day will spend an average of $144.

In addition, 13% anticipate their Labor Day spend will exceed $200. While 67% of consumers do actually plan to relax at home, one in three intend to visit the mall.

Despite reporting ho-hum sales for July, Costco said Thursday that its comps for the fourth quarter and fiscal year were up an impressive 6%.

Target Corp. has a new finance chief and executive VP. Cathy Smith officially joined the discounter on Sept. 1, coming from Express Scripts, the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits manager, where she was also CFO.  

A seasoned retail leader, Smith also held CFO positions at Walmart International, GameStop, and others. Target recently posted a Q&A with Smith on its Bullseye blog. Here are some highlights:

What made you decide to take on this role at Target?