Supply Chain & Merchandising

So what’s the bottom line? By rethinking stores and testing new ideas with customers in real-life stores, we are improving customers’ experiences and making it easier than ever for them to get what they need as quickly and easily as possible.  

At headline level, Target's results are a lot better than feared. The pace at which total and comparable sales are declining has eased over the prior quarter, and the company helped itself to a 7.7% increase in net earnings. Against a tumultuous retail backdrop, this is a not so terrible performance.  

American Eagle Outfitters’ profit shrunk in the first quarter amid charges and discounting.  

Target Corp.’s efforts to turnaround its business appear to be taking hold — at least based on its better-than-expected first quarter performance.     The discounter broke through the gloom that has characterized many other retailers’ first quarter results with earnings and sales that beat the Street and its own expectations. The company also gave a brighter outlook for the full year.   

German discount grocer Lidl is set to shake up the competition with prices that promise to turn up the heat on its U.S. competitors, who are already engaged in a price war.    Lidl on Wednesday revealed the locations of the first 20 stores it will open this summer in the United States, starting on June 15. (See end of story for listing). The stores — in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia — are the first of up to 100 locations the grocer plans to open across the East Coast by next summer.    

More hungry customers can now get their Big Macs, fries, beverages and desserts delivered right to their door.   As of Wednesday, May 17, McDonald’s is expanding its delivery service to customers in Los Angeles, Chicago, Columbus and Phoenix. Through its partnership with UberEats, the company’s “McDelivery” program now encompasses up to 1,000 restaurants in the United States.  

Newegg is adding supply chain support to its portfolio.   The electronics-focused e-retailer launched Newegg Logistics, the company’s branded logistics solution designed to help e-commerce sellers streamline order fulfillment, shipment and returns. Based on the many years it spent refining its own e-commerce logistics operations, Newegg’s service will help other businesses break into online sales.  

A month after it announced it would close 400 stores, the other shoe has dropped at Rue 21.   The Warrendale, Pennsylvania-based retailer announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and entered into agreements with some of its lenders to reduce the company's debt and provide additional capital in support of its restructuring. The company, which expects to continue normal business operations throughout the process, listed its assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion and $10 billion, according to its court filing.