Sales & Marketing

Fort Worth, Texas -- Pier 1 Imports reported Thursday that net income for the quarter ended Feb. 26 surged 65% to $57.1 million, from $34.5 million a year earlier.
 
The home décor retailer cited improving sales, cost control efforts and strong merchandise margins for the substantial improvement.

Pier 1 also announced a three-year growth plan that includes investing $200 million of capital into its operations and starting a $100 million share buyback.

MEMPHIS — Fred's on Thursday reported a 3% increase in sales for the five weeks ended April 2, reaching $188.8 million.

Comparable-store sales for the month rose 0.7%, versus an increase of 3.6% in the same period last year.

Grapevine, Texas -- GameStop Corp. has selected Adgregate Markets, a leader in secure social commerce solutions, to provide social shopping on its Facebook page through Adgregate’s proprietary ShopFans solution.

GameStop is the first multichannel gaming company to launch a storefront on Facebook and provide true social commerce to more than 1.8 million Facebook fans.

NEW YORK -- Uniqlo, a subsidiary brand of Japan-based Fast Retailing Co., announced that it will open its third New York City location at 31 West 34th Street this fall. The 34th Street store is set to open late in the fall of 2011, following the opening of the company's largest flagshop store on Fifth Avenue in early fall. Uniqlo operates a store in NYC's trendy SoHo neighborhood.

In conjunction with the news of its NYC expansion, Uniqlo announced plans to hire 1,000 retail associates and 100 supervisors from the local tri-state area.

San Diego -- Warehouse club operator PriceSmart reported Thursday that net income for the quarter ended Feb. 28 rose 31% to $17.9 million, compared with $13.7 million in the year-ago period.

Revenue rose 23% to $449.6 million from $366.1 million, mainly on higher warehouse club sales. Wall Street expected revenue of $386.1 million.

Same-store sales rose 16.7% in March.

ISSAQUAH, Wash. and WESTBOROUGH, Mass. -- The shifting of Easter to April this year impacted the warehouse club sector last month, as both Costco and BJ’s reported March comps that were negatively impacted by the calendar change. Without the benefit of Easter sales, both companies still managed to turn out respectable comps.

New York City -- Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo said Thursday it will open its third New York City location.

The new store, on 34th Street, set to open this fall, following the opening of the chain’s largest flagship location on Fifth Avenue earlier in the fall. Both stores will join the current Uniqlo location in Manhattan’s Soho district.
 

New York City -- Shoppers surprised analysts in March by spending stronger than expected during the month, despite rising gas prices, cooler-than-normal temperatures and a late Easter. The Thomson Reuters Same-Store Sales Index rose 1.7% in March, beating estimates, which called for a decrease of 0.7%.