Department Store

Dallas – Some major retailers are participating in the 30th Retailing Summit conference hosted by The Texas A&M University’s Center for Retailing Studies at Mays Business School.

Marvin Ellison, the new CEO of The J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Barry Beck, co-founder and COO of Bluemercury, which was recently purchased by Macy’s, will be among the speakers at the conference, held Oct. 8-9 at the Westin Galleria in Dallas.

Birmingham, Ala. – Books-A-Million needs more best-sellers.

A lack of hit books hit fiscal results of Books-A-Million Inc. during the second quarter of fiscal 2015. Net loss grew to $5.8 million from $3 million the same quarter a year earlier, with costs and expenses rising or staying flat in the face of slipping revenues.

Net sales dipped to $107.9 million, from $108.3 million. Same-store sales dropped 0.3%.

Chicago - Starwood Retail Partners is rewarding mall shoppers, regardless of which stores in the mall they choose to shop.

Starwood is rolling out Oh, So Simple Rewards, a program that lets consumers earn credit for their purchases at stores across the entire mall.

San Francisco — Gap Inc. is the latest retailer to say it will cease the practice of assigning store employees on-call shifts with little advance notice.

Gap joins other chains such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Victoria’s Secret in pledging to eliminate the practice from its stores.

New York — It was tough sledding for J. Crew Group in the second quarter as its namesake brand continued to decline.   The retailer swung to a net loss of $13.6 million for the quarter, ended Aug. 1,  compared with earnings of $10.8 million in the year-ago period.    Revenue fell 5% to $593.6 million.  

In a first, West Elm, a Williams-Sonoma subsidiary, will make its products available outside of the brand’s own stores and website.

Burlington, N.J. — Burlington Stores Inc. is in the black.

The company swung to a net income of $10.9 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015 from a net loss of $6.47 million the same quarter of last year. Decreases in stock option and interest expenses, as well as some impairment charges, helped bring Burlington to profitability.

Net sales rose 10% to $1.14 billion from $1.04 billion, while same-store sales grew 5.6%.

Detroit —  Work wear brand Carhartt on Thursday opened a flagship in Detroit, the city where it was founded in 1889.