eCommerce

HOFFMANESTATES, Ill. — Sears Holdings posted net income of $189 million in the quarter, compared with a loss of $165 million in the prior-year period.

After several rounds of closings of Kmart and Sears full-line stores in the past months, revenues decreased $270 million to $9.3 billion for the quarter ended April 28. Domestic comp-store sales declined 1.3% -- 1.0% at Sears Domestic and 1.6% at Kmart. Sears also saw declines in its home appliances and consumer electronics categories.

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Ross Stores reported Thursday that net income for the first quarter surged 21% to $208.6 million, from $173 million in the same period last year.

Sales increased 14% to $2.4 billion, and same-store sales rose 9%.

“We believe that favorable weather across many of our markets also contributed to our above-plan performance," said Michael Balmuth, CEO, about the results.

NEW YORK — Kara Laricks has been named the first winner of NBC's reality competition show, "Fashion Star," and as part of her prize, the designer will launch an exclusive collection at Macy's that is available at 110 Macy's stores across the country and on Macys.com for a limited time.

"We are extremely excited to have NBC's "Fashion Star" winner Kara Laricks collection sold exclusively for Macy's," said Martine Reardon, chief marketing officer for Macy's. "This show has been an amazing

Framingham, Mass. -- Staples Inc. said its first-quarter net income fell 6% to $187.1 million, compared to $198.2 million a year ago, hurt by weakness abroad.

Total sales fell 1.1% to $6.1 billion. International sales, which account for roughly 20% of the company’s total revenue, dropped 8% to $1.2 billion. In the United States, Staples’ revenue was flat.
 

New York -- Dylan's Candy Bar will open its first West Coast location in Los Angeles, this summer. The 2,500-sq.-ft. store will be located in a historic landmark: the Original Farmers Market on the corner of Third and Fairfax.

“We opened our first store 10 years ago in NYC fulfilling a childhood dream of mine to create the largest, most magical candy store,” said Dylan Lauren, founder and CEO of Dylan's Candy Bar. “Now I'm thrilled to bring my love of color, design and the joy of candy from coast to coast!”

WASHINGTON — Tanna Dang, a boutique owner in Honolulu, Hawaii was awarded the top $25,000 prize in the National Retail Federation’s inaugural “This is Retail” video contest. Florida’s Kim Williams of The Polka Dot press came in second place and will take home $15,000 and Illinois’ Susan Kaufman will take home $10,000 for third place. Nearly 1 million votes were cast by the public through NRF’s Retail Means Jobs website to choose the contest winners.

Hingham, Mass. -- The Talbots and Sycamore Partners extended the exclusivity period for the private equity firm's non-binding $214.6 million takeover offer to May 22.

Talbots had entered into an exclusivity agreement with Sycamore on May 5, which was due to expire on May 15.

As part of Chain Store Age’s lead-up coverage to RECon 2012, to be held May 20-23 in Las Vegas, we talked with Jones Lang LaSalle’s Lew Kornberg about what his expectations are for the big real estate show. Visit JLL’s booth at RECon, Central Hall, C1001.

What are your expectations for RECon 2012 in terms of activity, attitude, priorities?