Sales & Marketing

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.

Delhaize America is joining other retailers in announcing it will work with suppliers to reach a 100% cage-free shell egg assortment by 2025.

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.

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.

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.”

Nordstrom Rack is coming to Memphis.

The off-price retailer plans to open a 33,000-sq.-ft. store at Poplar Commons in Memphis, in the fall of 2017. The store is leased from Seritage Growth Properties who is replacing an existing Sears building with a 135,000-sq.-ft. shopping center.

“We're excited to bring our first Nordstrom Rack to Memphis and can't wait to open our doors in 2017," said Geevy Thomas, president of Nordstrom Rack.