Retail

Cincinnati -- The Kroger Co. has promoted Steve McKinney to president of the Fry's Food Stores division. Fry's operates 119 food stores in Arizona.

McKinney, 57, has been VP of operations at the company's Ralphs division since 2007. He succeeds Jon Flora, who passed away unexpectedly two weeks ago.

PetSmart's board of directors has approved a motion to increase the company's quarterly dividend by 18% from $0.16 to $0.19 per share beginning in the third quarter.

The dividend of $0.195 will be paid Nov. 15 to stockholders of record at the close of business Nov. 1. This is equivalent to an annual rate of $0.78 per share.

Atlanta – The Home Depot, Inc. reportedly expanding the national rollout of Redbeacon, its online handyman referral service. According to Bloomberg, Home Depot is making Redbeacon, which connects customers online to home repair professionals, in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Montana, and Alaska.

Home Depot now offers Redbeacon in 11 states and plans to roll out the service in additional states during the next two years. The retailer acquired Redbeacon, which was founded by three former Home Depot employees, in 2012.

Pittsburgh – Dick’s Sporting Goods is opening three new stores. The stores are located at the Lakeshore Mall in Gainesville, Ga., the Epps Bridge Center in Athens, Ga., and a remodeled store in Leawood, Kan.

Duck Tape brand duct tape is getting ready for Halloween with a product offering that will allow Halloween enthusiasts to jazz up Halloween décor, costumes and crafts and participate in the brand's Stick or Treat Jack-O-Lantern contest.

For the contest, participants can decorate their own real or artificial pumpkin using the palette of Duck Tape colors and designs for a chance to win a $1,000 cash grand prize. Participants can create a classically spooky Jack-O-Lantern or a Halloween-inspired monster.

Greenwood Village, Colo. — Red Robin will open a new restaurant in Hagerstown, Md., in late October.

The new restaurant will add to the chains 480 U.S. restaurants located across the U.S. and Canada.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. – Kohl’s Department Stores announced it is opening three stores on Friday, with locations in Hyannis, Mass., Keene, N.H., and Michigan City, Ind. The company also said it is remodeling 30 locations this fall.

Single Touch Systems, a technology based mobile media solutions provider, has announced that its mobile messaging volume, which is a key business metric that drives revenues, has been growing at an increasingly accelerated pace.

Single Touch generates a portion of its operating business revenues by sending SMS text messages including reminder messages to customers of some of the largest retailers in the U.S. and U.K. Each message sent generates incremental revenues for Single Touch.