Sales & Marketing

Savannah, Ga. -- Citi Trends Inc. lost $5.5 million for the period ended Aug. 3, compared to a loss of $7.9 million in the same quarter a year earlier.
 
Revenue rose 4%, to $137.8 million from $132.3 million, nearly matching Wall Street’s prediction of $138.1 million. Same-store sales were up 1.7%.

Phoenix -- PetSmart said Wednesday that its second-quarter net income rose 19% on improved sales. The retailer also boosted its full-year earnings forecast.

PetSmart Inc. earned $93.4 million for the period ended Aug. 4, compared to $78.5 million a year ago.

Revenue rose 5.3% to $1.71 billion from $1.62 billion. Services sales, which are included in total sales, grew 7.3% to $205 million.

Same-store sales increased 3.4%.

Greenwood Village, Colo. — Red Robin Gourmet Burgers will open its first location in Peoria, Ill., on Sept. 2. To help celebrate the grand opening, Red Robin will donate the new restaurant’s sales of Freckled Lemonade for the first week of operations to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding cures for all kids with cancer.

LOS ANGELES — Global lifestyle brand Guess? has appointed Michael Relich as the company’s chief operating officer. As part of the brand’s executive leadership team, Relich will report to co-founder and CEO Paul Marciano.

Relich spent nine years as the brand’s chief information officer. Relich has had increasing global responsibilities, leading a number of areas, including IT, distribution/logistics, e-commerce and strategic planning.  

Los Angeles — Hong Kong is by far the world’s most expensive city for global retailers, but prime rents in New York City, London, Tokyo and Zurich are on the rise, according to research from CBRE Group, Inc.

CBRE’s second quarter 2013 ranking of the top 10 prime global retail markets saw little change relative to previous quarters; however, four of the top 10 markets — New York City, London, Zurich and Tokyo — saw quarterly increases in prime retail rents. Only one market saw a quarterly increase in the first quarter.

Worse than expected second quarter sales results at Dick’s Sporting Goods sparked new consumer spending concerns and prompted the company to lower its full year profit forecast.

Dicks said sales for the quarter ended August 3, increased 6.6% to $1.5 billion, however same store sales fell 0.4%, versus a planned 2% to 3% increase, when adjusted for a 53rd week in 2012. Profits for the period totaled $84.2 million, or 67 cents a share, compared to $53.7 million, or 43 cents a share.

DALLAS — J.C. Penney Co. posted a wider-than-expected loss in the second quarter on a nearly 12% drop in revenue. But even though Penney’s results were worse than expected, there were small signs that interim CEO Myron Ullman may be starting to stop the bleeding related to former CEO Ron Johnson’s failed transformation of the chain.

The quarter was the first entirely under the watch of Ullman, who returned to Penney in April to undo the strategy put in place by Johnson, who planned to transform Penney stores into a series of branded in-store shops.

With the addition of an Android app, mobile workforce leader Gigwalk expects its on-demand workforce to soon exceed 600,000.

The two-year-old San Francisco-based technology company already has 325,000 workers, known as Gigwalkers, using its app on iPhones to perform a variety of mobile research and store audit functions. The addition of an app for Android phones is expected to more than double the number of Gigwalkers because Android phones are more prevalent in the market.