Retail

After more than 50 years in business, JC's 5 Star Outlet/J.C. Penney Outlet will be closing all 15 outlet stores in 14 states. 

"Going Out of Business" or "Total Inventory Blowout" sales will start Wednesday in each outlet store, offering consumers $70 million worth of name brand and private label products at significant discounts from the already low outlet prices of 25-75% off comparative retail.

Walnut Creek, Calif. -- The Home Depot comes in first in a new ranking of retail digital gift card offerings. Retailers with the highest overall digital gifting scores in  a new RSR Research benchmarking report, “Digital Gift Cards: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, are The Home Depot, Sephora, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and The Cheesecake Factory.

Deerfield, Ill. – Net earnings for Walgreen Co. soared in both the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2013. Net earnings during the fourth quarter totaled $657 million, an 86.4% increase from $353 million in the same quarter a year ago, while net earnings for the full year rose 15.2% to $2.5 billion, from $2.1 billion.

Walmart opened a dedicated online fulfillment center in Fort Worth this week and said its largest facility ever will open next spring in Bethlehem, Pa.

Meijer plans to address the need many consumers have for more information about the health insurance exchanges that are part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

San Bruno, Calif. -- Walmart announced it is opening two new warehouses dedicated to filling online orders, one in Fort Worth, Texas, and one in Bethlehem, Pa., which will be its largest center to date. The new facilities are part of a next-generation fulfillment network that the retailer said will deliver U.S. customer orders faster and at a lower cost.

SMS Assist, a leading technology-driven facilities maintenance and management company, has appointed Geoffrey Wigner as its EVP of facilities.

Wigner previously served as senior director of store services for Dollar General, where he managed more than $500 million in capital and expense budgets while directing major projects affecting more than 10,000 stores. Wigner helped the nationwide retailer open 625 new stores and renovate 525 others in fiscal year 2011. 

Hollywood, Calif. – On Sept. 26, 2013, the board of directors of Frederick’s of Hollywood Group Inc. received a non-binding proposal letter from a consortium of HGI Funding LLC, TTG Apparel, LLC, Tokarz Investments, LLC, Fursa Alternative Strategies LLC, and Arsenal Group LLC to acquire all of the outstanding shares of its common stock.