Supply Chain & Merchandising

Walmart this week launched a new “click and collect” grocery concept in Bentonville, Ark. Hometown media outlet City Wire was on hand for the grand opening and evaluated the service by ordering a few items. Click here to read the report.
 

 

Boston – Drizly, a technology company powering beer, wine and liquor delivery for consumers across the U.S., has launched Drizly.com, its new e-commerce website. Drizly.com serves as an extension of the Drizly smartphone apps for iPhone and Android, which allow consumers to have beer, wine and liquor delivered in 20-40 minutes, using a network of retail delivery partners.

Rite Aid reported $2 billion in sales for the four weeks ended Sept. 27, representing a 4.5% increase over the comparable year-ago period.
 
Same-store sales increased 5.1% over the prior-year period, including a 2.3% lift in front-end same-store sales and growth of 6.3% in pharmacy comparable sales. Pharmacy same-store sales included an approximate 225 basis points negative impact from new generic introductions. Prescription count at comparable stores increased 4.4% over the prior-year period.
 

Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Dress for Less will open a new store in Colorado on Oct. 11. The store is located in Prairie Center in the community of Brighton, eight miles northwest of Denver.

This new opening is part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.

Carle Place, N.Y. -- 1-800-Flowers.com announced the closing of its acquisition of Harry & David Holdings, a specialty retailer and producer of branded premium gift-quality fruit, gourmet food products and other gifts.

“This combination will propel our total annual revenues to more than $1.1 billion and offers numerous opportunities to accelerate our top and bottom-line growth going forward,” said Jim McCann, CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com.

Beachwood, Ohio – During third quarter 2014, DDR Corp. closed on the acquisition of eight prime power centers and the sale of seven operating assets and two land parcels, totaling $699 million of executed transactions. Seven of the eight power centers that the company acquired were purchased for $377 million at DDR's share from a joint venture formed with Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII L.P. in August 2013.

San Francisco - Scandit, a developer of a software-based barcode scanning solution for smartphones, tablets and wearable devices, has released an integrated suite of mobile apps to enhance the consumer shopping experience and retail operations. Scandit’s Mobile App Suite for Retail provides a series of fully customizable, cross-platform mobile applications for retail employees and customers including: clienteling, mobile point-of-sale (mPOS), mobile shopping, self-checkout, shopping lists and procurement.

Houston - Mattress Firm Holding Corp. has completed its acquisition of the mattress specialty retail assets and operations of Back to Bed Inc., M World Mattress LLC, MCStores LLC and TBE Orlando LLC, which collectively operate Back to Bed and Bedding Experts retail stores in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin and Bedding Experts and Mattress Barn retail stores in Florida.