Discount Store

Livonia, Mich. -- It’s Labor Day, time to start thinking about Halloween.

In anticipation of one it calls of the largest retail holidays in the U.S., costume superstore, Halloween City, is creating thousands of temporary jobs to staff the hundreds of Halloween City stores now opening across the country.

The retailer is recruiting up to 10,000 new employees to fill temporary management and store associate positions nationwide.

Target Corp. has a new finance chief and executive VP. Cathy Smith officially joined the discounter on Sept. 1, coming from Express Scripts, the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits manager, where she was also CFO.  

A seasoned retail leader, Smith also held CFO positions at Walmart International, GameStop, and others. Target recently posted a Q&A with Smith on its Bullseye blog. Here are some highlights:

What made you decide to take on this role at Target?

A rapidly expanding retailer led by a former top Walmart executive is supposed to produce strong same store sales growth, leverage expenses and increase profits. So why isn’t Five Below?

Joel Anderson’s tenure as CEO of value priced retailer Five Below (where everything cost less than $5) is off to an uneven start. The company is achieving its profitability targets, but doing so with productivity improvement in its selling space that is surprisingly weak given the newness of its store base.

Philadelphia -- Teen and tween fave Five Below Inc. may not be meeting sales projections, but it remains on track for store expansion, with plans to open a total of 70 net new stores during fiscal 2015, including 16 net new stores in the third quarter.

The company, where every item costs no more than $5, is achieving its profitability targets, but doing so with productivity improvement in its selling space that is surprisingly weak given the newness of its store base.

Bauer Hockey's Own the Moment Hockey Experience is designed to provide the ultimate showcase for the 88-year-old brand and the sport itself, combining expert help, customer service extras and extensive selection.

Value-priced home furnishings retailer Cost Plus World Market debuts its first small-scale store.

Click here to see slideshows of Cost Plus World Market New York City location and Bauer Hockey's first-ever physical store in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Online retailer ThinkGeek is teaming up with GameStop on a new concept retail store focused entirely on collectibles.

The first store will open in the Florida Mall in Orlando on Sept. 25.

Louisville, Ky. -- A new off-price outlet concept that opened its first store in November 2014 is expanding.

Retail4LESS announced the opening of two new locations in Kentucky — one in Madisonville, and the second in Franklin — with both due to open in the late fall.

The opening of the two new stores will mark the first new stores for the off-price retailer since the launch of its inaugural location last year, in its home base of Louisville.

New York – Macy’s Inc. on Wednesday officially entered one of the industry’s fastest-growing store segments: off-price retail.

The company unveiled its newest banner, Macy’s Backstage, with the opening of three New York City -area stores, with locations in Brooklyn, Queens and Melville (on Long Island).