Department Store

Aston, Pa. - Actions Services Group, a national lighting maintenance, sign maintenance and electrical services company, has signed an agreement with Stage Stores for interior lighting maintenance and electrical services for three of its retail brands. The three retail brands include Bealls, Goody’s and Peebles with store locations across the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

New York - The back-to-school (BTS) shopping season is already in full swing, with over one-third (37%) of consumers having begun their shopping – up from the 29% who started at this time last year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. And roughly 90% of households indicated a selection of brick-and-mortar retail as a shopping venue for the BTS season.

Michael Weiss, who started with Express when it was an eight-store operation, will retire as CEO of the 600 plus-store specialty apparel company when its fiscal year ends on January 30, 2015.

He will be succeeded by David Kornberg, 46, president, who will assume the added role of chief executive. Weiss, 73, will remain with Express as nonexecutive chairman of the board.

Indianapolis - Julie Lyle, chief marketing officer of Hhgregg, has been named the 2015 chairperson for the Global Retail Marketing Association (GRMA) Advisory Board, an association for C-level executives from global retailers. As chairperson, Lyle will lead the GRMA Advisory Board and play a key role in the development of the organization’s strategic initiatives and thought leadership.

North Brunswick, N.J. - Staples has leased a 14,000 sq. ft. space at North Village Shopping Center in North Brunswick, N.J. Levin Management, exclusive leasing and managing agent for the 132,000-sq.-ft. center, negotiated the lease.

Ascena Retail Group began a search for a new CFO after its current EVP and CFO, Dirk Montgomery, resigned this week. As the company reviews potential new CFOs, Ascena board member and audit committee chair Randy Pearce, will have more involvement with the company’s finances.

Montgomery is expected to stay in his position until the fall, when he will move on to a Florida-based healthcare company, where he recently accepted an offer to be closer to his family.

The economic trend for some time now has been a slow and meandering recovery. Despite improving consumer confidence numbers, a surprising first quarter GDP decline of 2.9% speaks to that uncertainty. Retail analysts and observers have a tendency to blame the weather whenever we have a bad economic quarter or when retail sales are unexpectedly sluggish, but I tend to be a little dubious of those explanations. Last winter was definitely rough enough to impact spending, but I don’t think it’s enough to explain the continued issues into the spring.

Austin, Texas – Parents spend, on average, $659 on school-related costs throughout the year per family. According to a survey from digital coupon provider RetailMeNot, 67% of parents start their back-to-school shopping by the end of July, which is down slightly from 2013 (71%).