Mass Merchant

If Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2010 numbers were any indication, retail may well be prepping for some measurable bounce in 2011.

But the road to recovery isn’t going to be without frustrations, according to Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle’s North America Retail Outlook report, released in November.

The inaugural report examined retail real estate fundamentals such as vacancy levels, rental rates and investment sales volumes -- and drew the conclusion that 2011 would see a “slow and arduous retail sector recovery.”

Home Depot, Lowe’s and Sears offer free delivery and installation of major appliances, and now Best Buy does too. The company this week announced what it declared was an industry-leading combination of free delivery along with an 18 months same-as-cash financing offer to spark interest in the appliance category.

Beaumont, Texas -- Electronics and appliances retailer Conns announced Monday that its president and CEO Timothy L. Frank has resigned the company.

Conns named Theodore M. Wright as the interim CEO and president, and has launched a search for a permanent replacement.

Frank has led the company as president and CEO since June 2009; he has been president since April 2006, and previously served as COO and senior VP retail.

Frank left to pursue other opportunities, the company said.

Target is set to report February same-store sales this Thursday and offer the first data point of the new fiscal year in which same-store sales are forecast to increase in the range of 4% to 5%. For February, the company has forecast a low single-digit increase and last week in conjunction with the release of fourth-quarter results confirmed it was on track to meet the low single-digit number.

WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation last week responded to the Federal Reserve's proposal to cap debit card swipe fees at 12 cents per transaction.

Rockville, Md. -- Federal Realty Investment Trust said Monday that The Fresh Market will open a new store at Congressional Plaza, a 332,000-sq.-ft. regional shopping center in Rockville, Md.

The store, the specialty grocer’s first in Montgomery County, will measure 19,860 sq. ft. Recent openings at the center include Last Call Studio by Neiman Marcus and Matchbox Vintage Pizza Bistro.

Acquired by Federal Realty in 1965, Congressional Plaza is a regional shopping destination anchored by Buy Buy Baby and The Container Store.

Target’s longstanding pricing philosophy of remaining within a few percentage points of Walmart remains intact, according to the most recently monthly pricing survey from Credit Suisse. The firm looks at prices on a basket of goods in Dallas and Chicago each month, and in January it revealed the gap between Walmart and Target had widened to 3.9% from 3.7% in December.

NEW YORK -- The Knot,  a media company devoted to weddings, nesting and babies, announced that it had repurchased all shares in the company owned by Macy’s Inc.