Mass Merchant

New York City -- Saks on Wednesday announced it plans to close its Saks Fifth Avenue store located in the Cherry Creek Mall in Denver, Colo., on March 19. With the closing, the company will have closed seven Saks Fifth Avenue stores since July 2010.

Chicago -- Year-over-year retail sales increased 6.5% for the week ending Jan. 1, according to ShopperTrak’s National Retail Sales Estimate, while the company’s Retail Traffic Index (SRTI) reported foot traffic rose 4.1% for the same period.

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens reported on Wednesday that its December sales rose 7.5% to $6.8 billion. The chain said that Duane Reade stores, which Walgreens acquired in April 2010, contributed 2.5 percentage points.

Walgreens’ same-store sales for the month rose 2.8%

The company said front-end sales were up 9.5%. Pharmacy sales, which accounted for 58.6% of total sales for the month, saw a 6% boost.

During the month of December, Walgreens opened three stores, including one relocation, and acquired three stores.

Houston -- Datacert, a global provider of enterprise legal management solutions, announced that Walmart has selected Datacert's Passport technology platform, to help strategically manage the chain’s domestic legal processes and systems. In addition, Walmart will implement Datacert's matter management and spend management systems, which are built on Passport.

Natick, Mass. -- BJ’s Wholesale Club announced that Robert W. Eddy, senior VP, director of finance, has been named executive VP and CFO, and Cornel Catuna, BJ’s senior VP field operations, has been named executive VP club operations. These management changes will be effective on Jan. 30.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Holdings announced that Deidra Cheeks Merriwether has been promoted to senior VP and president of its Retail Services business unit, succeeding James H. Haworth who will be leaving the company to pursue other opportunities. Merriwether will be responsible for the oversight and leadership of retail services for all Kmart and Sears stores.

Reynoldsburg, Ohio -- Centro Properties Group announced that a 15,426-sq.-ft. Family Dollar recently opened at Brice Park, in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.

Centro Properties Group, based in New York City, is the owner of Brice Park.

Hammond, La. -- Covington, La.-based Stirling Properties, developer of Hammond Square, said that Charming Charlie will occupy a 9,911-sq.-ft. space on Main Street across from Books-A-Million and Shoe Department Encore.

The anticipated opening is spring 2011, and will accompany openings by Academy Sports + Outdoors and The Children’s Place.

St. Paul, Minn. -- Paster Enterprises said that five new tenants have been secured at the company’s projects throughout the area. New tenants include Furniture CLW, No Box TVs, Chickadee’s House, Anytime Fitness and Wilson’s Leather Outlet.

In Crystal Shopping Center, a 370,000-sq.-ft. community center, Wilson’s Leather Outlet will open a 3,171-sq.-ft. store. In Lexington Plaza Shoppes, a 26,747-sq.-ft. neighborhood center, Chickadee’s House will open a 1,332-sq.-ft. bird enthusiast store.

NOVATO, Calif. - Sears Holdings has launched a new online movie download service, Alphaline Entertainment (http://alphaline.roxionow.com),/ which enables Sears and Kmart customers to download entertainment online, including new movies on the same day they are released on DVD and Blu-ray disc. The service is being provided through Sonic Solutions RoxioNow platform.