Sales & Marketing

Chattanooga, Tenn. -- CBL & Associates Properties announce locations for the second phase of Fisher-Price play areas to be installed as part of a multi-year, multi-property partnership, which was announced fall 2015.

The play areas will resemble a larger-than-life Toy Box featuring iconic brands like Thomas & Friends, Little People and more. These exclusive attractions will be brought to life by PLAYTIME, LLC, long-time partner of CBL.

Dollar Tree says the integration of Family Dollar stores helped grow sales and profit in the fourth quarter.

For its fourth quarter ended Jan. 30, net sales at Dollar Tree were $5.37 billion, a 116.7% increase from the same period a year ago. The boost in revenue was the result of $2.68 billion in sales from the Family Dollar d. Same store sales increased 1.7%. Profit was $229 million, up by $22.4 million from a year ago. 

The number of installed mobile POS units is growing rapidly.

Mobile POS devices surpassed 6 million units worldwide by the end of 2015, according to new research from IHL Group. The number of installed units grew by 64% during the year.

The vast majority of these units are being used in retailers below 50 stores in their chain. However, IHL reports it is beginning to see an uptick in enterprise mobile POS retail accounts.

Ross Stores reported strong results for its fourth quarter. But similar to many other retailers, the off-price retailer sounded a cautious note with regards to sales and earnings for its new fiscal year.

Ross on Tuesday reported earnings per share for the fourth quarter ended January 30, 2016 of $.66, up 10% from the prior year, on net earnings that rose 6% to a better-than-expected $264 million.

Stein Mart says it has extended its consumer credit agreement with Synchrony Financial with a new long-term deal.

Since 2006, Synchrony Financial and Stein Mart have partnered to offer credit card programs for qualifying cardholders at the retail chain’s 278 stores and at Steinmart.com. Consumers can apply in-store or online for the Stein Mart Style Credit Card or the Stein Mart Style Platinum Master Card.

A new form of wage theft has recently been identified, where employers misclassify employees’ schedules in order to shift the business expenses associated with scheduling to the employee. Illegal misclassification schemes have been around for decades. A common example is an employer misclassifying an employee’s job title, so that the employee is a salaried employee, in order to avoid paying the employee overtime. Here, the employers are misclassifying the employee’s schedules, instead of the employee’s job title, to avoid paying reporting time premiums.

Charleston, S.C. -- Faison Enterprises announced it broke ground on its new mixed-use development, located in Daniel Island’s Town Center, Charleston, South Carolina. The project will include 317 luxury apartment units along with nearly 30,000 sq. ft. of restaurant and retail space.