Supply Chain & Merchandising

San Jose, Calif. – Consumers appear to have been feeling a seasonal hangover after what some analysts have called a relatively strong 2014 holiday season. According to the monthly Retail Performance Pulse for January 2015 from RetailNext, store sales and traffic both declined 7.7%

Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in the Houston area on March 7.

The stores are located in the Center at Pearland Parkway in East Pearland, 15 miles from downtown Houston; and Ravenwood Village Shopping Center in Huntsville. With these new locations, Ross will operate 170 stores in Texas, its second largest state.

Together, Ross Dress for Less and dd’s Discounts currently operate over 1,300 off-price apparel and home fashion stores in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Guam.
 

Atlanta -- Rent-to-own retailer Aaron’s saw its profit drop 35% in 2014 amid declining traffic and weak sales. The company, which operates some 2,100 stores, was also impacted by hurt by various charges related to restructuring and the acquisition of Progressive Leasing.

Aaron’s reported net earnings of $78.2 million for 2014, compared to $120.7 million in 2013.

It's official: The long-struggling RadioShack has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The 94-year-old retailer made its filing in  U.S.

Profit for rent-to-own giant Aaron’s, which has struggled with declining foot traffic and sluggish sales, fell 35% for 2014 and about 2.75% in the fourth quarter of last year.

San Diego – Early results of 2015 suggest it will be a happy New Year indeed for PriceSmart Inc. For the month of January 2015, net sales increased 13.3% to $219.2 million from $193.5 million in January a year earlier.

The retailer’s growth to 36 warehouse stores from 32 a year earlier helped boost sales. In addition, same-store warehouse sales grew 1.7%.
 

Cache on Wednesday said it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after running out of capital and time to complete its turnaround.

The women’s apparel retailer will continue to operate its business, but intends to continue to reduce its store count and sell and renegotiate some of its leases. Cache chairman and CEO Jay Margolis said the company filed Chapter 11 with the goal of “securing Cache’s future.”

Conn’s Inc. seemed to be putting their troubles behind them in the fourth quarter, as the company reported a modest increase in same store sales.   The company posted a 4.9% increase in same store sales for January (in January 2014, the company posted an increase of 28.2% mostly due to softer underwriting guidelines). Same store sales for the quarter increased 1.3% and they increased 8% for fiscal 2015.