Retail

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway Inc. is exiting the Philadelphia market. The company announced it has reached a definitive agreement to sell 16 of its Genuardi's stores in the greater Philadelphia area to Giant Food Stores, LLC, a division of Ahold USA.

The deal is valued at $106 million.

In addition, Safeway plans to close three Genuardi's stores and sell the remaining eight Genuardi's stores, which it will continue to operate while it is working with potential buyers.

Philadelphia -- Bailey Brand Consulting, one of the largest branding and design firms in metro Philadelphia, recently completed the corporate re-branding for Liz Claiborne Inc., which will now be called Fifth and Pacific Companies. The new name and corporate logos will be effective on or about May 15.

MINNEAPOLIS — Best Buy said Thursday that it has completed the acquisition of mindShift Technologies. 

The acquired firm will operate under its current name, management team and capabilities, which include approximately 500 employees at offices in Boston; Long Island, N.Y.; Minneapolis; Morrisville, N.C.; New York City; Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

San Jose, Calif. -- Apparel retailer Guess has implemented the VeriFone GlobalBay iPad Retailing solution, from VeriFone Systems, in a dozen stores in the United States, taken the technology on the road to Asia, and plans to expand the deployment widely in 2012. The apparel retailer is using the VeriFone solution to enable consumer interaction with iPads mounted on rolling stands that serve as self-service kiosks to its online and in-store products to enhance the overall shopping experience and generate additional sales.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway on Thursday announced the sale of 16 of its Genuardi's stores in the greater Philadelphia area to Giant Food Stores, a division of Ahold USA. Safeway will continue to operate these stores until the transaction closes, and the company is working through an orderly transition for all of these stores.

In addition, Safeway plans to close three Genuardi's stores and sell the remaining eight Genuardi's stores, which it will continue to operate while it is working with potential buyers.

MONROE, Conn. — Spire, a provider of actionable shopper analytics to leading retailers and manufacturers, has announced hat Mike McMahon has joined the company as president.

McMahon has spent half his career in consumer packaged goods and the other half working in marketing services.

"Mike will now take up a key leadership role at Spire, committed to fine tuning Spire's strategy, managing our growth and exceeding all client and partner expectations,” said Paul Taylor, CEO and founder of Spire.

Minneapolis -- Best Buy said today that it has completed the acquisition of mindShift Technologies, which provides managed IT, cloud, data center and professional services to more than 5,400 clients and 25,000 managed desktops in markets throughout the nation.

The acquired firm will operate under its current name, management team and capabilities, which include approximately 500 employees at offices in Boston; Long Island, N.Y.; Minneapolis; Morrisville, N.C.; New York City; Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

 

New York City -- Barnes & Noble said Thursday that it is beginning “strategic exploratory work” to separate the Nook division in an effort to help the emerging business grow.

“We see substantial value in what we’ve built with our Nook business in only two years, and we believe it’s the right time to investigate our options to unlock that value,” said William Lynch, CEO, Barnes & Noble.