Supply Chain & Merchandising

ABILENE, Kan. — Argonne Capital Group LLC, a private investment firm based in Atlanta, Ga., has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Alco Stores, which will allow Argonne to acquire all outstanding shares of the broad-line retailer’s common stock for $14 per share in cash. 

New York -- The Dump Furniture Store plans to open a 134,000-sq.-ft. outlet in Lombard, Ill. and a 215,000-sq.-ft. warehouse in Addison, Ill. over the summer.

With 11 locations, the big-box retailer offers discounted famous-name furniture in stores open only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

CHICAGO — Just two months after Groupon launched its free Breadcrumb iPad point-of-sale app, the company has announced major additions aimed to provide local businesses with a pre-built, customizable experience adapted to their specific industry. 

Breadcrumb POS how offers features for a broad range of merchants, including the ability to use pre-loaded menus and inventory lists, process offline transactions, scan and redeem Groupon vouchers, track deal performance and add custom item modifiers. 

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — As lawyers face off in the first battle over Detroit’s bankruptcy bid, Meijer is preparing to open its first store in the economically depressed city at the Gateway Marketplace shopping center.

Naperville, Ill. – OfficeMax Inc. is promoting Deb O’Connor, senior VP of finance and chief administrative officer, to interim CFO. She will replace Bruce Besanko, executive VP and CFO, who will leave the company to become the executive VP and CFO of Supervalu Inc. His last day at OfficeMax will be Aug. 6. A five-year veteran of OfficeMax, O'Connor previously served as senior VP and controller of the ServiceMaster Company.

Flooring specialist Lumber Liquidators reported a 14.9% second quarter same store sales increase and became the latest company to benefit from a resurgent housing and home improvement market.

Lumber Liquidators, operator of 300 stores, said total sales increased 22.2% to $257.1 million from $210.3 million during the second quarter ended June 30. Gross margins expanded to 41.3% from 37.3%, reflective of a reduced sourcing costs, higher prices and improved operational efficiencies, which translated to significant profit growth. Net income surged 67.7% to $20.4 million.

Eden Prairie, Minn. -- Supervalu has named Bruce Besanko as the company’s executive VP and CFO, effective Aug. 7. Besanko joins Supervalu after serving as executive VP of finance, CFO and CAO for OfficeMax since 2009.

IRVING, Texas — Holiday shifts adversely affected quarter-to-date performance at Michaels Stores, which reported net sales of $631 million for the nine-week period ending July 6, a decrease of 0.1% from $631.8 million for the comparable period last fiscal year. 

Same-store sales for the same fiscal period declined 2.7%. The company's quarter-to-date performance was also adversely affected by the timing of media activity due to the impact of the 53rd week in fiscal 2012. However, as a result of the shifts, the company has seen improvement in July sales performance.