Sales & Marketing

Tokyo – Uniqlo opens new stores in Berlin, and in three U.S. locations on Friday, April 11. The 2,700-sq.-ft., three-story Berlin store is located on the Tauentzienstrasse shopping boulevard and is Uniqlo’s first German store.

The Berlin store is also the largest Uniqlo store in Europe and features revolving mannequins wearing origami headdresses and LED ticker-tapes listing all the cities where Uniqlo has stores around the world.

Sandpoint, Idaho -- Coldwater Creek Inc. on Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, with plans to close its stores and wind down operations by early summer.

Framingham, Mass. -- Staples has partnered with 3D Systems, a leading provider of 3D content-to-print solutions, to test 3D printing services in two stores in New York and Los Angeles.

Each store features a 3D printing center that lets consumers and small businesses create personalized products and use 3D printing hardware. Customers can also bring in their own 3D print-ready files to have them printed.

Guy Hayward was named CEO of Massmart to fill a position currently held by Grant Pattison, the executive who engineered the sale of a majority stake of the South African retailer to Walmart.

Pattison joined Massmart in 1998 and served as CEO since 2007, helping to engineer the sale of a majority stake in the company to Walmart several years ago. Assuming the CEO role on June 1 will be current COO Guy Hayward. He joined Massmart in 2000 as CFO and was later named COO and also played a key role in the Walmart and Massmart transaction.

San Diego – PriceSmart Inc. reported increases in net earnings and revenues during the second quarter of fiscal 2014. Compared to the same period a year earlier, net earnings rose 14% to $28.3 million, from $24.9 million.

Revenues climbed 11% to $674.4 million from $607.4 million. The opening of two new warehouse club stores contributed to PriceSmart’s fiscal performance.

Teen retailer Hot Topic is using the appeal of the pre-order and a Disney film tailor made for its core customers to encourage full margin sales and drive traffic to HotTopic.com.

The retailer is featuring a limited edition collection of apparel inspired by Disney’s dark anti-hero “Maleficent,” on its Web site for pre-order beginning April 15. Merchandise will be available in stores and online in May with prices ranging from $29.50 to $54.50.

Lakewood, Colo. – Natural Grocers Inc. has opened two new stores in Las Cruces, N.M. and Gresham, Ore. The locations are respectively Natural Grocers’ fifth store in New Mexico and seventh store in Oregon.

Natural Grocers stores offer features including a credentialed nutritional health coach, local products, free recyclable boxes and demos, speakers and seminars.

Staples has partnered with 3D Systems, a leading provider of 3D content-to-print solutions, to pilot 3D printing services in two stores in New York and Los Angeles.

Each store features an immersive 3D printing experience center that lets consumers and small businesses create personalized products and use 3D printing hardware. Customers can also bring in their own 3D print-ready files to have them printed.