Retail

Seattle -- Nordstrom announced plans to open a Nordstrom Rack, at Chapel Hills East in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and one at Destiny USA mall in Syracuse, New York.

The 33,357-sq.-ft. Destiny Mall location is scheduled to open in fall 2015. The retailer recently announced new Rack stores opening in Buffalo and Albany, also in fall 2015.

The 31,203-sq.-ft. Chapel Hills East Nordstrom is scheduled to open in spring 2016. The property is owned and managed by DDR Corp.

The strength of the U.S. dollar and a decline in hardware sales are among the reasons GameStop cited for its decline in holiday sales. But that's not the whole story.

Sales of new software, a key category for the video game retailer, were strong. New software sales increased 5.8%, or 8.9% in constant currency. The growth was driven by a 94.4% increase in PS4 and Xbox One software, led by titles such as Activision’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V and Ubisoft’s Far Cry 4. 

Staples didn’t have a great year, so Chairman and CEO Ron Sargent won’t accept a $31,000 base pay raise the board of directors had previously approved.

The company announced that Sargent would not accept the 2.5% pay increase, along with several noteworthy governance moves, including the appointment of an independent chair when Sargent retires.

In other board moves, current director and former Toys “R” Us CEO Robert Nakasone is relinquishing his seat to make room for a Google executive.

New York -- It appears there is a disconnect between consumer attitudes and behaviors with regards to their digital interactions. In a survey by IBM, 43% of consumers said they prefer to shop online, but only 29% actually made their last purchase online. In some product categories such as youth apparel or home décor, there is a nearly 20-point gap between the percentage of people that say they enjoy shopping online and the percentage of people who actually made their last purchase online in those categories.

Oak Brook, Ill. - McDonald’s USA is turning to digital menu boards for improved merchandising at more than 14,000 stores. AT&T has collaborated with Stratacache and LG Electronics to provide a completely integrated digital menu board solution.

Camp Hill, Pa. - Rite Aid Corp. has increased its borrowing capacity to $3 billion as part of a refinancing of an 8% senior secured notes that are now due in January 2020. Borrowing capacity will increase to $3.7 billion when the notes are paid.

Rite Aid expects, at current rates, to save approximately $20 million in annual interest expense, based on a $3 billion facility, and approximately $50 million in annual interest expense, based on a $3.7 billion facility and the redemption of the notes.

Location analytics solutions provider Esri is helping BJ’s Wholesale Club generate actionable business insights from club location data.

BJ’s use of Esri’s solutions was announced in conjunction with the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York. More specifically, BJ’s will use Esri’s location analytics solutions to aid in real estate research strategy and business insight analysis.

Burlington, Mass. – Demandware Inc. has agreed to expand into in-store retail sales by acquiring Tomax, an enterprise cloud software company that provides an integrated solution for retail POS and store operations. Total purchase price will be about $75 million, including $60 million in cash and $15 million in contingent retention-based payments.