Department Store

Syracuse, N.Y. — Junior fashion retailer, Lexy, has expanded into a new 3,098-sq.-ft. store at Moreno Valley Mall in Moreno Valley, Calif. The new store opened on Feb. 14.

Managed by Spinoso Real Estate Group, the center is home to 130 stores and restaurants including a number of new arrivals. Crunch Fitness recently moved into a 20,000-sq.-ft space. Junior fashion retailer, Image, opened in December 2013.

Tejon Ranch, Calif. — Pottery Barn plans to open a new outlet store at The Outlets at Tejon. At 12,397-sq. ft., it will be the retailer’s ninth outlet store in the U.S. and its only current outlet store in California.

Currently under construction and slated to open in August 2014, The Outlets at Tejon is located on Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, Calif.

Plano, Texas -- J.C. Penney Company has named Ed Record as CFO, effective March 24. He will also serve as executive VP. Record, 45, comes to Penney from regional department store chain Stage Stores, where he most recently served as COO and, before that, as CFO.

Record will succeed Ken Hannah, who was hired in May 2012 under former CEO Ron Johnson.

While we’re only just getting started on 2014, already one of the big retail stories is store closings. While the economy is far from robust, we aren’t in a recession either, and so at first these closings might seem a little surprising. I don’t see it that way, however: The recent spate of planned store closing for 2014 is exactly what we should expect from an industry in transition. It’s not a crisis, so much as it is a realignment.

Irvine, Calif. – Beall’s has selected replenishment and profiling solutions from JustEnough Software Corporation, a provider of demand management solutions for retail, wholesale and direct-to-consumer businesses worldwide.

Beall’s utilizes existing legacy systems, so delivering strong, focused product presentations and excellent in-stocks required a high inventory investment and was very time consuming.

Bealls has enlisted JustEnough Software Corporation, a leading provider of demand management solutions for retail, wholesale and direct-to-consumer businesses worldwide, to improve customer service.

Bealls will be leveraging the new technology to streamline its inventory and be able to turnaround stock quickly to meet its customers’ needs.

Costa Mesa, Calif. — Uniqlo is expanding into Southern California. The Japanese apparel retailer will open its first stores in the region this fall, at the Beverly Center in Los Angeles and South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

Uniqlo announced announced it will an additional location in Northern California, at the Sunvalley Shopping Center in Concord. Also in the works: a store at Stamford Town Center, Stamford, Conn.
 
The retailer, owned by Japanese holding company Fast Retailing Co., currently has 17 stores in the United States.

White Plains, N.Y. — Overall online shopping rose 8% during the week before Valentine's Day compared to the same period in 2013. Growth was particularly strong in the categories of gifts (up 20%), apparel (up 17%) and health and beauty (up 15%), and department stores (34%) compared to the previous year.