Sales & Marketing

Plano, Texas – Net earnings at Rent-A-Center Inc. fell 58% year-over-year in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, to $17.5 million from $41.9 million. Costs related to pretax restructuring and the consolidation of 150 stores into core U.S. stores helped reduce total net earnings.

Boston - Food is a major driver of the American urban experience. According to a new survey of residents of six major U.S, cities by design firm Sasaki Associates, 82% of urbanites appreciate their city's culinary offerings, and a new restaurant is the top reason the majority of them (46%) would venture to a new part of their city.

Clothing company Kellwood has named Marc Babins the president of its western region. Babins — who has been in the apparel industry for most of his career — will head up Kellwood’s largest operations unit in City in Industry, California.

Bogota, Colombia – Colombian coffee retailer Juan Valdez has opened the first of 60 planned stores in Miami, with official grand opening scheduled for July 28. The downtown location is the first Juan Valdez store in Miami besides an existing store at Miami International Airport.

The economic trend for some time now has been a slow and meandering recovery. Despite improving consumer confidence numbers, a surprising first quarter GDP decline of 2.9% speaks to that uncertainty. Retail analysts and observers have a tendency to blame the weather whenever we have a bad economic quarter or when retail sales are unexpectedly sluggish, but I tend to be a little dubious of those explanations. Last winter was definitely rough enough to impact spending, but I don’t think it’s enough to explain the continued issues into the spring.

A new iPad app that allows art enthusiasts to browse and order millions of images from 250,000 artists is a game-changing development for buyers and sellers, according to app developer Pixels.com.

Users are able to browse and preview images on their walls using the iPad's built-in camera, and then purchase the images as framed prints, canvas prints or greeting cards. The free app is the only one to combine photo and artwork sharing with e-commerce and a 3D-like “view on your wall” feature, according to app developer Pixels.com.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Lowe's announced plans to locate a customer support center in Indianapolis, creating up to 1,000 new jobs by 2016.

The retailer plans to invest $20.5 million to purchase, renovate and equip a 140,000-sq.-ft. office facility at Intech Park 12, 6620 Network Way, on the northwest side of Indianapolis. The new center will support stores and internet sales, delivery services and repair services for Lowe's customers across the United States.

Las Vegas - The Vaccine Center And Travel Medicine Clinic is live on the Springboard Web-based retail platform and fully integrated with QuickBooks Online. Springboard Retail offers retailers an entirely Web-based retail management platform that is fully integrated with QuickBooks Online.

This will allow The Vaccine Center And Travel Medicine Clinic to seamlessly share data between their POS and accounting software in real time.