Distribution

Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in the Houston area on March 7.

The stores are located in the Center at Pearland Parkway in East Pearland, 15 miles from downtown Houston; and Ravenwood Village Shopping Center in Huntsville. With these new locations, Ross will operate 170 stores in Texas, its second largest state.

Together, Ross Dress for Less and dd’s Discounts currently operate over 1,300 off-price apparel and home fashion stores in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Guam.
 

Arlington, Va. -- A breakdown in contract negotiations between labor and management at America’s west coast ports is threatening to turn a work slowdown into a full-scale strike, the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) warned.

Boston -- Three of the nation’s largest asset disposition companies were the successful bidders in the race to liquidate inventory at Target’s 133 Canadian locations.
 
Gordon Brothers Group, Hilco Global (through its Canadian division  Merchant Retail Solutions) and affiliates of Great American Group secured approval from Target Canada and an order from a Canadian court to manage the store closing process for Target’s 133 Canadian locations, with store closing beginning February 5, 2015.
 

It’s the end of an era that never really began for Target Canada as three of the biggest names in the asset disposition world begin store closing sales at Target’s 133 Canadian locations.   Gordon Brothers Group, Hilco Global and Great American Group were the successful bidders at a Jan. 27 auction and secured approval from Target Canada and an order from a Canadian court to manage the store closing process for Target’s 133 Canadian locations.  

New York -- Academy Sports + Outdoors will celebrate the simultaneous opening of four stores in the Orlando, Florida, area in March.

The new stores will be located in Kissimmee, Waterford, Lake Mary and Melbourne and will open simultaneously at 8:30 a.m. on March 6. The openings mark the Katy, Texas-based company’s furthest expansion eastward to date.

The $4 billion sporting goods retailer has entered into a multi-year partnership with the Orlando City Soccer Club beginning with the team's inaugural 2015 season.  

By Will McKitterick, analyst, IBIS World

New York -- Staples has entered an agreement to acquire Office Depot in a cash and stock deal valued at $6.3 billon that is sure to face a high degree of regulatory scrutiny.

Staples has entered an agreement to acquire Office Depot in a cash and stock deal valued at $6.3 billon that is sure to face a high degree of regulatory scrutiny.

Scottsdale, Ariz. – Specialty pet retailer PetSense has selected Shopatron as its inventory lookup and analytics partner to support its omnichannel operations, including a new e-commerce site that launched in November 2014. The Shopatron Retailer platform will support more than 3,000 PetSense product SKUs and allows the retailer to see which items were searched for at what location to help guide its merchandising decisions.

Seattle – Amazon.com is reportedly piloting co-branded e-commerce sites with three universities. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is partnering with Purdue University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of California Davis to operate the sites, which sell textbooks and T-shirts as well as other items available on Amazon.com.