Supply Chain & Merchandising

New York -- A new IBM study of more than 30,000 global consumers found that consumers are willing to share their personal information with retailers, particularly if they get good value in exchange.

According to the findings, the percentage of consumers willing to share their current location via GPS with retailers nearly doubled year-over-year to 36%. Thirty-eight percent of consumers would provide their mobile number for the purpose of receiving text messages and 32% would share their social handles with retailers.

Big 5 Sporting Goods announced that their fourth-quarter sales results were affected by a lower demand year-over-year for firearms and ammunition products as well as a highly promotional retail holiday environment.  

The company reported net sales of $248 million, an increase of 1.8% from $243.6 million for the prior-year quarter. Same-store sales decreased 0.5% for the quarter versus the prior year period.

New York & Company CEO Gregory Scott is pleased with the company’s holiday performance. The operator of 514 stores has navigated through what it called a challenging retail environment to build on the momentum it generated in the first three quarters of the year.

Comparable-store sales for the nine-week period ended Jan. 4 increased 1%. Additionally, the specialty apparel chain narrowed its outlook for the 13-week fourth quarter ending Feb. 1.

Tampa, Fla. -- Applied Data Corporation (ADC), a provider of fresh item management (FIM), recipe management and scales management software to the grocery retail and food service industries, announced that Publix Super Markets, Lakeland, Fla., has completed implementation of InterScale, ADC’s Scales Management Software system, into all of their stores.

RadioShack is enlisting specialty retail industry veteran John W. Feray to help the company execute its turnaround strategy and has appointed him EVP and CFO effective Feb. 6.

Feray joins RadioShack from Dollar General, where he has been SVP of finance and strategy since 2008 under both private equity ownership and as a public company. With responsibility for financial planning and analysis, long-term strategic planning, real estate market planning and operational improvement activities, he has been credited as a key contributor to Dollar General's growth.

New York -- Regional discount retailer Fred’s is making some big changes to its merchandising and operations groups to begin 2014 and has retained several firms to review strategic opportunities.

Atlanta -- First Data Corp., in its SpendTrend analysis for December, reported that dollar volume grew 6.1%, which marked a significant spike compared to November’s growth of 4.4% as holiday shoppers were out in full force with no time to procrastinate due to the shortened holiday shopping season.

SpendTrend tracks same-store point-of-sale data by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT, closed-loop prepaid cards and checks from nearly four million U.S. merchant locations serviced by First Data.

Albany, N.Y. -- Total sales for the nine-week holiday 2013 period at Trans World Entertainment Corporation were $115 million compared to $128 million for the same period last year, a decrease of 10.2%. The company operated an average of 5% fewer stores during the nine-week period as compared to last year.

Same-store sales for the nine-week period ended Jan. 4, 2014 decreased 6%.