Sales & Marketing

Houston -- Stage Stores said Wednesday it will launch a new off-price concept, called Steele’s, to be rolled out in small-town America.

The first three stores are slated to open on Nov. 1, in Beeville, Texas; Bastrop, La.; and Minden, La.; the company said it plans to open an additional 25 to 35 new Steele’s stores in 2012.

Tokyo -- Fast Retailing Co., parent to the Uniqlo chain of stores, reported Wednesday that profit for the full year fell 12% to $709.2 million. The company blamed the performance decline on bad weather, but said it will accelerate store openings overseas, which will compensate for the decline.

Duluth, Ga. -- NCR Corp. announced the launch of CPMobile, a mobile retail management solution designed to enable specialty retailers to engage more directly with consumers throughout the sales process and provide a level of customer service that will drive revenue and differentiate them from their competition.

New York City -- Uniqlo, the expansion-minded Japanese apparel retailer, on Friday will open its largest store in the world, an 89,000-sq.-ft. flagship on Fifth Avenue. The three-level store reflects the chain’s ambitious designs on the United States and also the changing nature of Fifth Avenue, which is experiencing an influx of moderately-priced retailers.

Uniqlo is looking to grow its business to $50 billion by 2020. U.S. expansion figures into its strategy.

CHICAGO — The Network of Executive Women has elected five new members at large to its board of directors.

New board members are Mike Byron, president of supplier diversity for Supervalu; Sarah Chartrand, SVP diversity, talent management and organizational development for Ahold USA; Marnette Perry, SVP Kroger; Suzanne Sears, VP global market development at Kimberly-Clark; and Karen Stuckey, SVP merchandising and general merchandise manager of the home division for Walmart Stores.

Rogers, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores had positive news for analysts and investors gathered for the retailer’s annual meeting on Wednesday in Rogers, Ark. The chain said its same-store sales rose in July, August and September, reversing a two –year slump.  It also announced that it plans to cut its capital spending in the United States, even as it increased cap spending abroad,  as it continues to shift toward building smaller stores.  

BILLERICA, Mass. and MINNEAPOLIS — Customers looking to get their hands on the new iPhone 4S can trade in their old versions for special trade-in values at more than 1,400 Target stores nationwide. Through a partnership with NextWorth, Target is offering customers locked in trade-in values for old iPhones that can be redeemed when they pick up their new iPhone 4S starting Oct. 14. 

According to NextWorth, old iPhones need only be in good working order to qualify for the values quoted below:

• iPhone 4 (16GB & 32GB): $200

In past columns, I have talked about restaurant group think and the tendency of dining concepts to overfill a niche. I’m becoming concerned that athletic apparel is in danger of the same thing. We now have three big players in this space: Lululemon, Lucy, and, more recently, Gap’s new Athleta concept. It seems that each has successfully carved out a lucrative niche in the world of contemporary athletic apparel, but it feels to me like it may be the latest retail “trend-du-jour.”