Retail

I’m sure I don’t need to tell any retailers out there that consumers are adopting mobile technology at a breakneck pace and integrating it into every part of their lives, including shopping. And while the retail industry generally understands that mobile technology CAN add significant value to both the customer experience and their own bottom line, it may not exactly know HOW or WHY this is the case.

By Douglas H. Meal, David T. Cohen, and Lisa L. Rachlin, Ropes & Gray LLP

Retailers, like all businesses, constantly seek to learn more about their customers in order to serve them better. In Tyler v. Michaels Stores, however, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that a simple step taken by many retailers to help achieve this goal – collecting the ZIP codes of their customers at the point of sale – can in some circumstances violate Massachusetts’ consumer protection statute.
   

Von Maur got its start like many of its department store peers: An immigrant with an American dream opened a downtown store, customers came, they shopped, the brand took hold and took off.

In the case of the midwestern upscale department store banner Von Maur, the dreamer was German immigrant J.H.C. Petersen, who opened a downtown storefront in Davenport, Iowa, in 1872. He and his sons grew the business and sold it nearly a half-century later to a partnership that included two Austrian brothers -- C.J. and Cable von Maur, whose family gained full ownership by 1937.

Brussels, Belgium -- Global supermarket operator Delhaize Group, whose U.S. divisions include Food Lion and Hannaford Bros., has named Maura Smith as executive VP, general counsel and general secretary. Smith formerly served as executive VP of government affairs, general counsel and secretary of PepsiCo and has 30 years of corporate legal experience.

Smith will report to CEO Pierre-Olivier Beckers and is succeeding Michael Wallers, who is entering a planned retirement.

Austin, Texas -- The bond is growing stronger between retailers' marketing and IT departments, and investments and activity in marketing-related IT projects are on the rise, according to a new study from EKN. More than 60% of the survey respondents indicated that the number of IT projects focused on marketing initiatives will increase in 2013 over last year.
    

Seattle -- Starbucks Coffee Co. is shaking up its senior management team with five promotions and two new appointments. John Culver, head of the China-Asia Pacific region with more than 10 years of Starbucks experience, is being promoted to group president, China and Asia Pacific (CAP), channel development and emerging brands. Jeff Hansberry, a three-year Starbucks veteran who has worked on the channel development and emerging brands team, is being promoted to president of China and Asia Pacific and will report to Culver.

As part of Von Maur's march beyond its core Heartland markets, in 2008 it opened a 130,000-sq.-ft. anchor store at the 1.1 million-sq.-ft. The Greene Town Center, located in Beavercreek, Ohio, and owned by MPI. That store has become the fashion heartbeat of a vibrant mixed-use destination that was originally built by MPI in 2006, expanded in 2008, and slated to expand again in 2014 with another 40,000 sq. ft. of retail.

St. Louis -- Build-A-Bear Workshop reported increased net income and sales the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same quarter a year earlier, despite closing some stores. The retailer’s adjusted net income rose to $2.3 million, compared to an adjusted net loss of $500,000 in the first quarter of last year.

Consolidated net retail sales were $102.9 million with 24 fewer stores compared to $95.2 million in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 8% excluding the impact of foreign exchange. Consolidated same-store sales increased 10.4%.