Retail

Warren, Mich. – Art Van Furniture is adding its seventh Chicagoland location in Downers Grove. Renovations are set to begin to transform the two-story 106,000-square-ft. building into a new store scheduled to open in January 2015.

Boca Raton, Fla. – Office Depot has named Michael A. Steele as VP, investor relations, effective immediately. Steele reports to Stephen E. Hare, executive VP and CFO.

Steele will develop and execute Office Depot’s investor relations strategy, serving as the primary interface for management with the financial community. He plans to relocate to the Office Depot corporate headquarters in Boca Raton in the coming months.

Best Buy’s defense of its market share proved costly during the holidays as greater-than-expected price cuts caused same-store sales to decline 0.9%, resulting in significant margin erosion and a vow to accelerate cost-cutting efforts in 2014.

Total sales for the nine-week period ended Jan. 4 declined slightly to $11.5 billion, with the domestic segment accounting for $9.75 billion of those sales. While domestic same store sales fell 0.9%, the company can take some comfort in the fact that its online comps increased 23.5%.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Holdings has signed a sublease with Dick's Sporting Goods to occupy a portion of its second floor at the King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pa. The two-story anchor building will be renovated with Sears maintaining exterior entrances on both levels and the mall entrance on level one.  

Houston — Fuddruckers has opened its first Dominican Republic restaurant in Santo Domingo through a partnership with franchisee Eduardo J. Gadala-Maria and Giancarlo Bonarelli.

The 3,500-sq.-ft. unit opened in Galeria 360, one of several new shopping malls in the city. Galeria 360 features 120 stores and restaurants plus a large movie theater.

 

Seattle – Technicians working at an Amazon.com fulfillment center in Middletown, Del., have reportedly rejected a bid to unionize from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). According to Reuters, a group of 27 maintenance and repair technicians voted against joining the IAM, 21-6.

The Container Store has kicked off a new purpose-driven marketing campaign focused on its values-based approach to business and conscious capitalism with full-page national newspaper ads as well as videos on the company’s new YouTube Channel.

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