Sales & Marketing

Scarborough, Maine -- Cole Haan is opening a flagship location in the Ginza, Tokyo's premier shopping district. The 2,000-sq.-ft. store debuts the company’s global format. Cole Haan also plans to use the store as a launching point for growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

Architecture firm Anderson Architects in New York led the design of the ground-floor store, in partnership with local architects Garde Co.

Coppell, Texas – Alco Stores Inc. reported a net loss of $8.1 million in the first quarter of its fiscal year, up from a loss of $1.7 million in the year-ago period, amid an elimination of a tax benefit. The company also announced its CFO has left the company.

Net sales decreased 4.1% to $104.7 million, compared to $109.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. Same-store sales, excluding fuel centers, decreased 7.1%. Alco president and CEO Richard Wilson cited several ongoing initiatives as providing promise for future performance.

Fresh & Easy has launched a full-scale marketing campaign inviting customers to discover the company’s new image.

Since transferring to new ownership in November, the company said, it has reinvigorated the brand and its stores with the aim of being the anytime, anyway, anywhere solution for getting healthy, convenient and affordable food.

Santa Monica, Calif. — Macerich is collaborating with HGTV, a home and lifestyle cable network, to create Santa HQ, an interactive holiday experience, at 10 Macerich malls. The initiative aims to add digital and social media to the traditional holiday experience of visiting Santa.

Los Angeles -- Apparel retailer American Apparel Inc. has fired its controversial founder Dov Charney as chairman, effective immediately, and has moved to fire him as CEO and president. The actions come on the heels of an ongoing investigation into alleged misconduct by Charney, who has been targeted in sexual harassment lawsuits and charged with allegations of misconduct for years.

More than 1-in-4 Rite Aid locations now reflect the latest in healthcare retailing — the company's Wellness store format, the concept that serves as a cornerstone to Rite Aid's overall health-and-wellness solution, John Standley, Rite Aid chairman and CEO, told analysts Thursday morning.

"From a strategic standpoint, it's important to note that our Wellness stores will serve as a primary vehicle for launching innovative merchandising solutions, expanded healthcare offerings and, over the next few years, our relocation and new store program," he said.

Montreal - LightSpeed is launching Advanced Reporting for LightSpeed Cloud, which adds Big Data analytics to LightSpeed’s cloud-based POS system. The analytics capability is designed to give retailers real-time insight into sales, inventory trends and customer preferences.

LightSpeed’s new Advanced Reporting for Cloud includes more than 40 reports that give detailed information on product sales, profits and margins; customer preferences; employee performance; payment methods; and vendor-by-vendor analytics; across all stores and channels.

Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) has named former Carrefour Group executive José Carlos González-Hurtado as president of International.

González-Hurtado will be responsible for the strategy and execution of all IRI services in international markets, including Europe, Asia Pacific, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.