Discount Store

Hoffman Estates, Ill. - Sears Holdings chairman Eddie Lampert is reportedly considering selling the company’s Sears Canada stores. According to the New York Post, Lampert has been quietly consulting banks including Goldman Sachs and reaching out to prospective buyers.

New York — The early bird rate for Chain Store Age's 32nd annual Retail Store of the Year design competition ends on Nov. 29. Retailers, design firms, architects and suppliers are invited to submit entries for the competition, whose regular deadline for submission is December 23, 2013.

Shopko has named retail industry veteran Peter McMahon as its new CEO.

McMahon has more than 30 years of experience in international retail. Most recently McMahon served as the COO at Loblaws. As COO, McMahon was responsible for Loblaws’ supply chain, IT, HR, labor relations, merchandising, store operations and loss prevention functions. Prior to his time at Loblaws, McMahon held senior-level positions at Walmart in Germany and Japan and Tesco in central Europe.

Foster City, Calif. – Although many retailers will be open for business Thanksgiving, they may wind up angering more consumers than they please. According to a new survey conducted by Prosper Insights for Visa, 62% of more than 4,600 adult U.S. consumers said they would not shop on and are opposed to shopping on Thanksgiving.

Framingham, Mass. -- TJX Cos. is launching its first-ever holiday gift hotline for its TJ Maxx and Marshall stores.

The hotline will be available to shoppers from Tuesday, Dec. 3 through Friday, Dec. 6, and will be staffed by nationally renowned style and gifting experts.

The hotline will be staffed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores said Mike Duke will retire as president and CEO, effective Feb. 1, 2014, and will be replaced by veteran company executive Doug McMillon. McMillon, 47, president and CEO of Walmart International, was also named to Wal-Mart’s board, effective immediately.

Crest Hill, Ill. — Mid-America Real Estate Corp.’s Net Lease Investment Group recently brokered the sale of a two-tenant 88,000-sq.-ft. retail building leased to Big Lots and Home Owners Bargain Outlet in Crest Hill, Ill. A private investor in California purchased the property from a local Chicago area investor for $2.25 million.

Major retailers surrounding the property include Jewel/Osco, Ultra Foods, Food 4 Less and TJ Maxx.

Ottawa, Ontario – Toys ‘R’ Us, which carries about 425 of the same video games as Amazon.com, is on average 37% higher priced than Amazon as of Nov 21. The latest Amazon Holiday Pricing Insights report from pricing solutions provider 360pi also found that the toy retailer has been keeping prices high during the last month and even increasing them during the week of Nov. 21, which may point to a deep discount strategy the week of Nov. 28.

Some other findings include: