Retail

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — OfficeMax is easing the burden felt by many teachers through its  sixth annual A Day Made Better teacher surprise events on Tuesday, October 2nd.

On Oct. 2, OfficeMax will surprise 1,000 teachers each with $1,000 worth of school supplies for their classrooms.  To identify recipient schools in need across the country, OfficeMax partnered with the nonprofit organization AdoptAClassroom.org. Principals of participating schools nominated teachers that exemplify passion, dedication and innovation in the classroom.

New York -- BFC Partners, a New York real estate development company, announced plans to develop a new retail complex and hotel, with the working name of Harbor Commons, on a site adjacent to the Richmond County Bank Ballpark in St. George, Staten Island, N.Y.
 
Harbor Commons will be an approximately 350,000-sq.-ft. retail complex along with a 120,000-sq.-ft. hotel, totaling 470,000 sq. ft. The retail complex will be comprised of approximately 100 designer outlets along with a variety of restaurants and cafes.
 

SIDNEY, Neb. — Cabela’s Inc. will open a Cabela’s Outpost Store in Kalispell, Mont., joining the outdoor retailer’s single full-line Billings store in the state.

Construction on the 42,000-sq.-ft. location is scheduled to begin in spring 2013 and Cabela’s said it expects to open the store in fall 2013.

Suffern, N.Y. -- Ascena Retail Group Inc. said Thursday it is planning a $34 million expansion that will add new equipment, systems and about 40,000 sq. ft. of space to its Greencastle, Ind., distribution facility.

The apparel retailer said that the objective is to turn its Greencastle facility into a primary e-commerce distribution site. The facility is located about 40 miles west of Indianapolis and was part of Ascena’s acquisition of Charming Shoppes Inc.

GRAPEVINE, Texas — GameStop as formed The Gamer Fund to provide temporary relief and meet the basic needs of GameStop associates who are facing hardships from tragic and isolated events. Endowed with seed donations from GameStop’s founders and senior management team, The Gamer Fund will be fully run and funded by GameStop associates.

Dodgeville, Wis. -- A Wednesday report by the Wisconsin State Journal said that Lands End plans to cut nearly 200 jobs in its headquarters town of Dodgeville, Wis., by the end of January.

Blaming growth of its online business at the expense of bricks-and-mortar stores, Lands End said it is culling its call center workforce by 29% and streamlining other operations. Fifty of the eliminated positions are corporate headquarters jobs and 25 are from the call center. All cuts were made Wednesday.

Stockholm, Sweden -- Swedish fast-fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB reported Thursday that net income for the quarter ended Aug. 31 edged up less than 1% to $550 million, missing analysts’ expectations of $618 million in profit. Sales rose 10% in local currency, but gross margins shrank and the retailer said it would delay the start of online operations in the U.S. until next summer to allow it more time to adapt to the market.

New York -- A new report from PwC US and Kantar Retail suggests that the retail industry may be transitioning to a 'post-modern' consumer-centric era triggered by the speed of technological advancements, globalization and hyper-competition, both online and offline.

The Retailing 2020 report recommended that successful retailers will need to transform themselves to grow in an increasingly polarized world of greater channel fragmentation that will result in greater non-store retail growth and smaller retail formats.