Distribution

Rooms to Go is cutting the ribbon this weekend on the largest retail furniture store in the Southeastern United States.

The Florida-based retailer will open a Rooms to Go Super Center and Distribution Center on Oct. 17 in Dunn, N.C. The newly built facility comprises approximately 1,450,000 square feet on 120 acres and houses a state of the art Rooms to Go showroom, a Rooms to Go Kids/Teens showroom, a Rooms to Go Outlet Center and a huge distribution center housing tens of thousands of pieces of furniture.

One of the world’s largest C-store operators is searching for a new CFO as the company expands its reach in the southern United States with a deal to buy 18 convenience stores operating under the Texas Star brand.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. announced that Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Raymond Paré has resigned. It also announced a deal to acquire 18 convenience stores in the Souhwest, which will be converted to the Circle K brand and will continue to sell Shell and CITGO-branded fuel. The deal is expected to close by next April.

It’s officially fall and, for retailers, this means holiday shopping season is right around the corner. For most, the season is marked by increased sales, both on and offline, and an opportunity to tap the highly profitable demographic of holiday shoppers. Likewise, it’s a chance for merchants to explore new markets and test new locations for possible retail site development.

No matter how good a retailer’s seamless experience is, without the correct product it falls apart.

Sears Holding Corp. is trying to ensure the right products are picked for the right customers with new Honeywell Vocollect voice-directed picking solutions. The retailer is working with Speech Interface Design (SID) to implement the solutions in two of its regional specialty distribution centers (RSCs) and its largest retail distribution center (RDC) in the coming months.

Bon-Ton is planning to hire thousands of seasonal workers this holiday season for its 270 Bon-Ton, Bergner's, Boston Store, Carson's, Elder-Beerman, Herberger's and Younkers department stores.

The company says it will hire 13,000 seasonal workers, about as many as last year, and will also hire 500 seasonal employees at its e-commerce fulfillment center and at its distribution centers.

Retailers are keeping up with omnichannel consumer demand behind the scenes.

According to a new survey of distribution center operators from Honeywell and YouGov, nearly nine in 10 distribution center operators expect to adopt new mobile devices and voice-direction technology in the next five years to meet omnichannel consumer expectations of faster, more accurate delivery.

Leading off price retailer Ross Dress for Less has made good on its 2015 growth plans and reaffirmed its long-range targets for existing and newer formats.

On Monday, the company announced the opening of 19 Ross stores and seven dd’s Discounts stores across 14 different states in September and October. The new locations complete the retailer’s  2015 expansion plans to add a total of 90 stores during the year.