Sales & Marketing

Seeking to boost back-to-school sales, 24 GGP malls will host Teen Vogue’s Back-to-School Saturday™ on Aug. 10.

For the second year in a row, Teen Vogue magazine has declared a national shopping holiday for Back-To-School.

This year, 100 malls and numerous national retailers — H&M, Topshop and American Eagle, for instance —have decided to see what the marketing concept can do for them.

Retailers will offer back-to-school deals and discounts, and the malls will host events.

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot reported a net loss, as well as declining total sales and same-store sales, during a disappointing second quarter of fiscal 2013. The retailer’s net loss of $64 million was the same net loss it reported in the second quarter of fiscal 2012. Excluding pre-tax charges, including some relating to the planned OfficeMax merger, and non-cash store asset impairment charges, the net loss would have been $28 million.

Seattle -- Nordstrom said it plans to open a Nordstrom Rack at 505 Fulton Street in Brooklyn, N.Y. The approximately 41,000-sq.-ft. store is scheduled to open in spring 2014.  The developer for the project is United American Land LLC.

The store will feature a unique design that will blend the architecture of the site — the landmark Offerman building — with the contemporary style of an adjacent, newly built structure. The single-level store will occupy the second floor retail space.

Los Angeles — Westfield, an Australian-based company that operates 47 U.S. malls, is leveraging mobile technology and social media to promote its back-to-school campaign. 

By John Orr, [email protected]

Passive-aggressive, unengaged employees just aren’t that into your customers. Worse, they might be taking it out on customers, whose experience sends them to competitors. Contrast that with the upside of having an engaged staff happy at their jobs and going out of their way to treat customers well.

NEW YORK — Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia decided to end the publication of two print titles and exit live television programming following lower revenues in publishing and broadcasting, which caused total revenues to decrease 13.5% to $42.2 million in the second quarter ended June 30, from $47.9 million in the same quarter last year. 

Los Angeles -- Candy emporium Sweet! Hollywood has opened its flagship location at the Hollywood & Highland Center, in Hollywood, Calif.

The store is designed as a one-of-a-kind retail entertainment experience by envisioning the proverbial kid in a candy store and bringing that vision to life.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Sports Authority has named Stephen Binkley as the company’s new CMO. He replaces EVP, chief merchant and CMO Greg Waters, who has decided to resign his position to pursue personal interests after 24 years at the company. 

During his tenure at Sports Authority, Waters held several leadership roles, including EVP, marketing and merchandising, COO and SVP of store operations.