Mass Merchant

Not sure why parents of a newborn would want to share images of their child with throngs of people gathered in Times Square or motorists in Los Angeles, but in these celebrity-obsessed and digitally-enabled times a lot of behaviors defy logic.

Be that as it may, Target devised a novel brand-building campaign that allowed parent to essentially share images of their baby with a universe of complete strangers as opposed to the more discrete tradition of limiting viewings to family and a close knit group of friends.

This should be interesting. “Target: Inside the Bullseye” is scheduled to air on CNBC Thursday, Jan. 13 at 9 p.m. EST. The documentary will repeat that evening at 10 p.m., 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. and will also re-air again on Jan. 15 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.

New York City -- Dress Barn on Monday announced it has been renamed Ascena Retail Group Inc. and will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker ASNA.

The company said it had reorganized under the new holding company, but was not making changes to operations, directors or officers. The names of its three specialty chains -- Dressbarn, Maurices and Justice, also are unchanged.

Amazon and Netflix are the top scorers in terms on online customer satisfaction, according to the sixth annual ForeSee Results E-Retail Satisfaction Index (U.S. Holiday Edition). Both had a score of 86 on the study’s 100-point scale, with 80 generally considered the threshold for excellence. Here are the study’s top performers:

U.S. consumers spent an estimated $36.4 billion in online purchases during the period Oct. 31 to Dec. 24, according to MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, registering a 15.4% year-over-year increase over the 2009 holiday season.

SpendingPulse reports on national retail and services sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check.

Goodlettsville, Tenn. -- Building on its plans to open 625 new stores in fiscal 2011, Dollar General Corp. announced that it will create 6,000 new jobs. The new stores and jobs will be spread among Dollar General’s existing 35-state operating area, as well as three new states: Connecticut, Nevada and New Hampshire.

In addition to 625 new stores, the company plans to remodel or relocate 550 stores.

By Craig R. Johnson

New York City -- BJ’s Wholesale Club is in the sights of private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners, which may pursue a hostile bid for the chain, according to The New York Post.

The Los Angeles-based buyout firm may make a bid if no auction occurs in coming weeks, the report said, citing an unidentified person close to the situation. BJ’s planned an auction to sell itself after an earlier bid from Leonard Green, according to the newspaper.

Holiday shoppers continued to unleash three years of pent-up demand as the season winds up, on their way to setting a new record of over $521B, blasting through 2007’s pre-recession record of $508 billion, according to Customer Growth Partners. Based on CGP’s proprietary mall surveys and government retail data -- and despite Sunday’s Northeast blizzard -- the sales growth confirmed CGP’s +5% holiday sales forecast. [CGP’s data include e-commerce, unlike NRF, which excludes the same.]