Supply Chain & Merchandising

New York City -- Saks Inc. announced Tuesday it will shutter its Saks Fifth Avenue store in the Dallas Galleria on June 15. The retailer has operated a store in Dallas since 1982, and the summer closing will leave some 120 associates with the choice of transfer or severance.

Simultaneous with the Saks departure announcement was news from department store chain Belk that it will fill the vacated Galleria space with a $20-million, 170,000-sq.-ft. flagship store that starts construction in July and is slated to open spring 2014. 

New York -- Starbucks Corp. is expanding its drive-thru format, the chain said in its first-quarter earnings call. According to company officials, more than half of the approximate 1,500 new locations it plans to open in the United States during the next five years will be drive-thrus.

Starbucks plans to remodel about 1,400 U.S. locations in 2013. Roughly 500 of those locations will receive a major overhaul.

Cincinnati -- Macy’s on Monday announced a series of changes to its senior executive leadership team, effective immediately. The changes include the creation of the newly-created role of chief omni-channel officer, which will be filled by Robert B. Harrison, previously Macy’s EVP for omni-channel strategy. Harrison, who will join the company’s executive committee, will report directly to Macy’s chief executive Terry Lundgren.
 

WASHINGTON — Retail industry sales (which exclude automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) will increase 3.4%, down slightly from 4.2% in 2012 and 5.8% in 2011, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2013 economic forecast.

The lukewarm forecast, released Monday, comes on the heels of a holiday season that went head-to-head with Washington’s political wrangling over fiscal concerns, shifting consumers’ spending plans downward. In the end, holiday sales in 2012 grew 3.0%.

New York -- Barnes & Noble is planning to shutter approximately one-third of its stores during the next 10 years, CEO Mitchell Klipper said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. As of Jan. 23, the company operated 689 stores. (The company also operates a separate division of 674 college book stores.)

“In 10 years we'll have 450 to 500 stores,” said Klipper in the interview, who noted that, even with the reduced store count, “it’s a good business model.”

Pittsburgh -- American Eagle Outfitters announced plans to open a series of vertically owned and operated-stores in Mexico, with the first location set to open on February 20, 2013, in Mexico City.
   
The store will be located in the Perisur’s shopping center, a mall located in the south part of Mexico City. Each AEO store will include an Aerie presence either in shop-in-shop or side-by-side form.

CINCINNATI — Macy's has assigned additional responsibilities to several of its executives following the retirement of Thomas Cole, chief administrative officer, who is leaving the company in May after 41 years of service.

Cole's responsibilities have been re-assigned as follows:

By Kevin Farkas, [email protected]