Department Store

Three women from Gap’s different brands highlight how they got started in retail, stayed engaged with the business and achieved personal growth in the most recent installment of “This Is Retail” from the National Retail Federation.

Click here to hear from Attica Jacques, Andrea Shimer and Kendra Maleiro began their careers began and what they are doing now.
 

Cincinnati -- The Streets of West Chester, a 167,638-sq.-ft. lifestyle center near Cincinnati, is kicking off the pre-development leasing and marketing for the second phase of its retail center with a 200,000-sq.-ft. planned expansion slated to open in spring 2016.

The Streets of West Chester expansion will join the opening of the new Bass Pro, beginning construction this summer, adjacent to The Streets, and will provide shoppers with new retail, restaurants and entertainment.

Randolph, N.J. -- Retailers are behind Amazon in analytics maturity, according to a new research report from EKN Research. Eighty percent of retailers say they are behind Amazon in analytics maturity, and 71% of retailers perform either basic analytics reporting or none at all – revealing retailers’ inability to take advantage of the data that is available to them.
 

GE Capital is providing MerchSource with a $130 million senior credit facility providing working capital for the company’s operations in the U.S. and Hong Kong.
 
MerchSource, headquartered in Irvine, California, ideates, designs, develops and distributes a variety of consumer products in categories including electronics, toys, home décor, household accessories and pet supplies. Its products are sold in retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond, CVS, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Target, Walgreens and Wal-Mart.
 

Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in the Southeast on July 19th.  The store openings are in The Village on Pooler Parkway in Pooler, Georgia, and Dixie Valley Shopping Center in Southwest Louisville, Kentucky.  These new openings are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.

Together, Ross Dress for Less and dd’s Discounts currently operate over 1,300 off-price apparel and home fashion stores in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Guam.

Gap and Banana Republic may have had soft sales in June, but performance at the company’s Old Navy brand saved the day.

The company reported an increase of 1% in June sales compared with last year. Net sales for the five-week period ended July 5 were $1.54 billion compared with net sales of $1.53 billion for the five-week period ended July 6 last year.
 

Atlanta -- Simon Property Group and Columbus Realty have teamed to inject a high-residential component to Simon’s fashionable Phipps Plaza shopping destination in the tony Buckhead area of Atlanta.

The residential project, to be named Domain at Phipps Plaza, will be developed with Columbus Realty Partners.

New York – Bebe Store Inc. has named Seth Johnson, Blair Lambert and Brett Brewer to replace Caden Wang, Barbara Bass and Cynthia Cohen on the company’s board of directors, effective immediately. Johnson previously served as CEO of Pacific Sunwear of California Inc.

Johnson also served as COO and CFO of Abercrombie and Fitch. Prior to joining Abercrombie and Fitch he held positions at The Limited Inc., Batus Retail Group, Conoco, and Dayton Hudson (now known as Target).