Department Store

Cincinnati -- In response to changes in “where the customer is headed,” Macy’s chief announced on Thursday a sweeping reorganization plan that will close 14 under-performing stores, lay off thousands of workers and, most far-reaching, ready the retailer to respond to an omnichannel shopping environment.

Macy’s announced a series of major operational and merchandising moves to accelerate its omnichannel approach while also releasing solid holiday sales.

Barnes and Noble Inc. saw a sharp decline in holiday sales in its Nook e-reader division, even as its retail segment showed small improvement.

The Nook segment (including digital content, devices and accessories), had sales of $56 million for the nine-week holiday period, decreasing 55% as compared to a year ago. Device and accessories sales were $28.5 million, a decrease of 68%. Digital content sales were $27.4 million, a decline of 25%.

Barnes & Noble is expected to spin off the Nook segment into a separate business in March.

It was a happy holiday from a sales standpoint at Steinmart with the company reporting a 5.8 percent same store sales increase for December.

The 5.8 percent comp increase for the December period ended Jan. 3 follows a 4.8 percent gain in November and a 4.5 percent increase during the prior December.

Secaucus, N.J. – The Children’s Place Inc. has authorized a new $100 million share repurchase, with the goal of returning excess capital to shareholders. During the past five years, Children’s Place has returned more than $487 million to our shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.

Dallas – “Table commerce” (or perhaps “t-commerce”) is not a widely recognized channel of customer engagement, but The Neiman Marcus Group just may change that. Neiman Marcus is piloting three interactive tables from T1Visions in its Austin, Chicago, and Topanga, California, locations.

Foothill Ranch, Calif. -- The Wet Seal announced it would 338 stores, or about 66% of its total portfolio, “on or about” Jan. 7, resulting in the termination of some 3,695 full and part-time employees. The struggling teen apparel retailer said the decision to close the stores was based on its overall financial condition and an inability to negotiate meaningful concessions from its landlords.   

Washington, D.C. – The holidays were at least moderately happy for in-store retailers. According to the Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) Index, in-store sales for the 2014 holiday shopping season were up 0.7% although sales decreased on Black Friday and Super Saturday weekends.

The number of transactions: actually declined 0.4%, but this was more than offset by a 1.1% increase in average purchase amount. Black Friday weekend retail sales were down -3.5%, while Super Saturday weekend retail sales were down -1.7%.