Sales & Marketing

The Sports Authority on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it plans to close or sell as many as 140 of its 463 stores nationwide. The beleaguered company has struggled in recent years under increased competition not only from online players, but also from the likes of Dick’s Sporting Goods and specialty retailers such as Lululemon that have capitalized on the “athleisure” boom in fitness apparel.

Teen and pre-teen retailer Five Below has big plans to bring its brand of extreme value retail to the Sunshine State.

The company will hold a grand opening of its first store in Miami on March 2, giving it a total of 15 locations in the state, and said over time is expects to open 100 more stores. This store is located at Causeway Plaza, 12195 Biscayne Blvd, North Miami.

American Eagle Outfitters didn’t exactly soar in the fourth quarter, but its low single-digit same-store sales increase was better than most and benefitted from recent store closures.

Total company sales increased 3% to $1.11 billion and same store sales grew 4% after a flat performance in the fourth quarter the prior year. Earnings per share increased 17% to 42 cents from the 36 cents earned from continuing operations the prior year. The company expects its first quarter same store sales to increase in the mid-single digits.

The Sports Authority on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it plans to close or sell as many as 140 of its 463 stores nationwide. The beleaguered company has struggled in recent years under increased competition not only from online players, but also from the likes of Dick’s Sporting Goods and specialty retailers such as Lululemon that have capitalized on the “athleisure” boom in fitness apparel.

Cold winter weather in the Western states helped Big 5 Sporting Goods post an increase in same-store sales and profit in the fourth quarter.

For the fourth quarter ended Jan. 3, the retailer said net sales increased to $275 million from net sales of $250.3 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. Same-store sales increased 0.1% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 and 1.4% for the full year.

Meijer's ambitious growth plans for 2016 involve nine new supercenters, 32 remodels and a $400 million budget.

The company announced the investment includes the construction of nine new Meijer supercenters and 32 different remodel projects. While Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin will each welcome new Meijer supercenters later this year, dozens of other Meijer stores have begun or will soon begin remodel projects to further enhance the customer shopping experience.

Product discovery is not a game, and GameStop Corp. is using a newly expanded ship from store program to bring goods as close to its customers as possible.

“We discovered 66% of our total unique SKUs were only represented on our store shelves, not in the warehouse,” Jason Allen, VP of multichannel operations for Grapevine, Texas-based GameStop told Chain Store Age in an interview. “Unless the customer came in a particular store that had that product on the shelf, there was no discovery.”