Retail

Dillard’s reported moderate growth in net income and sales during the third quarter of fiscal 2013. Compared to the same period a year earlier, net income increased 5% to $50.9 million from $48.5 million, while net sales climbed about 1% to $1.51 billion from $1.49 billion.

Party City’s sales during the 2012 Halloween season were adversely impacted by an estimated $10 million as a result of Super Storm Sandy, but the specialty retailer bounced back this year with retail sales totaling $395 million, up 10.6% from the same period last year.

The company's retail banners include Party City (which, in turn, includes the company's Canadian locations and recently acquired and rebranded iParty stores), Halloween City, Party City.com and Party Delights.

Alvarez & Marsal, a global professional services firm specializing in turnaround and interim management, performance improvement and business advisory services, has hired Tom Phelps as a managing director. He will help retailers in the U.S. and worldwide improve business performance.  

Eight-in-10 (80.6%) shoppers will purchase gift cards this holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation’s Gift Card Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.

Holiday shoppers will spend an average of $163.16 on gift cards, up 4.0% over the $156.86 they spent last year and the highest amount in the survey’s 11-year history. Total spending on gift cards will reach $29.8 billion.

Ace Hardware reported somewhat mixed results for its third quarter with 8.9% growth in revenues compared to 2012, and profits that were essentially flat compared to the prior year quarter.

The hardware cooperative netted $1 billion in revenues for the quarter, an increase of $84.4 million over the same quarter in 2012.

Meanwhile, net income came in at $34.4 million, little changed since 2012's figure of $34.3 million.

A tepid economic climate and government shutdown weren’t enough to prevent Macy’s from producing a 3.5% third quarter same store sale increase and better than expected profits which prompted the department store operator to reiterate it full year financial forecast.

Mall of America has unveiled an Enhanced Service Portal that aims to improve the digital and physical shopping experience by integrating all the communication channels through which consumers contact Mall of America into a unified service.

O’Connor Capital Partners, a privately owned, independent real estate investment, development and management firm, has named Glenn J. Rufrano as chairman and CEO.

Rufrano was a founding partner of the O’Connor Group, the firm’s original incarnation, and has served on the board since 2010. He has also acquired a full partnership stake in the firm.