Supply Chain & Merchandising

East Cleveland, Ohio -- Walgreens received GE Lighting’s Retailer of the Year award in recognition of the drugstore chain’s transition from F28 to F25 linear fluorescent lamps, a strategic move that enabled the company to achieve a 9% energy savings while also extending its re-lamp cycle — how frequently it changes bulbs — by 10%. The award was presented at GE’s third annual LED & Energy Efficient Lighting Trends for Retail conference, held at the lighting unit’s headquarters in East Cleveland, Ohio.

WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. — Regional supermarket chain Tops Markets reported a 3.6% increase in net sales for the period ended Oct. 8.

Third-quarter net sales rose $18.7 million to $538.6 million, the retailer said. Supermarket sales (excluding gasoline sales) totaled $491 million, up $7.5 million, or 1.5%, compared with the year-ago period.

North Plainfield, N.J. -- Shopping center owner and manager Levin Management Corp., in its annual pre-holiday survey, found that more than a third of its retail tenants predict 2011 sales will be higher than 2010’s, while just 18.9% project a drop in sales for the 2011 holiday season.

The remaining 44.2% expect this year’s holiday sales to mirror last year’s.

St. Louis -- Brown Shoe Co. said Monday that while profit rose dramatically in the third quarter thanks to a business unit divestiture, the retailer will cut several of its lines and close underperforming stores nationwide to shore up profitability.

The holiday season is about to get underway with what is expected to be the single greatest spending orgy in the history of commerce with more than $20 billion spent on Black Friday compared with $19.3 billion last year, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse.

Topeka, Kan. -- Collective Brands Inc., parent of Payless ShoeSource, reported Monday that it swung to a loss of $114.3 million in the quarter ended Oct. 29, compared with a profit of $47.6 million in the year-ago period. Excluding a tax-related charge, the retailer would have gained $37.1 million in the quarter.

Third-quarter results at Target were pretty darn good, but they were actually even better than they seemed depending on how one compares this year’s number to the prior year performance. Profits grew 10.2% to 82 cents in the third quarter compared with 74 cents the prior year, thanks to a 4.3% same-store sales increase and ongoing improvement in the company’s credit card business. 

Chicago -- Nearly 70% of U.S. adults would avoid shopping at a retail store if they encountered empty shelves, according to a nationwide survey commissioned by Galleria Retail Technology Solutions, a leading provider of retail and category optimization solutions. Long checkout lines are another big turnoff (64%).