Sales & Marketing

WTI expects June 2014 to trend similar to last year and above normal for the U.S. as a whole. Cooler and more normal temperatures can be expected from the Western Plains to the Rocky Mountain states. Temperatures will be cooler than last year along the West Coast, but still above normal with slightly weaker demand for summer categories. In the Northeast, temperatures will trend similar to last year while precipitation trends drier than a very wet June 2013, which will benefit store traffic and increase demand for outdoor categories.

Middleton, Wis. -- American Girl, a division of Mattel, announced plans to open its newest store at Scottsdale Quarter, an open-air lifestyle center owned by Glimcher Realty Trust and located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The 12,000-sq.-ft. store is slated to open in late summer of 2015 and will be located within a new 180,000-sq.-ft. expansion of the property.

Retail Solutions, a global provider of cloud-based, Big Data analytics and real-time intelligence for the consumer products industry, has selected Gigwalk, a local visibility software platform, to power its new RSi Intelligent Crowdsourcing solution.

According to the company, its new offering provides clients with end-to-end business intelligence that drives sales by delivering real-time, actionable intelligence to field operations for improved in-store retail execution and on-shelf availability.

San Jose, Calif. -- Hispanic supermarket chain Mi Pueblo Foods announced its formal emergence from Chapter 11 reorganization after having completed a necessary financial restructuring. The company also announced that Javier Ramirez has been named president and CEO. He will succeed Mi Pueblo founder Juvenal Chavez, who will be named chairman of the board.
 
Ramirez is a seasoned CEO in the Hispanic food and grocery sector.
   

Toronto -- Hudson's Bay Co. (HBC) swung to a profit in its first quarter, boosted by strong sales at Saks Inc., which it acquired last year. Hudson's Bay has announced plans to bring Saks to Canada, starting with two locations in Toronto in 2015.

Sidney, Neb. — Cabela’s Inc. plans to construct a 90,000-sq.-ft. store in Woodbury, New York. The retailer will begin construction in spring 2015 and expects to open in spring 2016. It will be Cabela’s second store in New York. The first, located in Cheektowaga, is expected to open this fall.

Chicago -- ShopperTrak, a leading global provider of consumer behavior insights and location-based analytics, announced it has signed Journeys as its 1,000th customer.