Logistics

Goodlettsville, Tenn. -- Dollar General isn’t letting its failed bid for rival Family Dollar slow its momentum. On Saturday, Dollar General announced it is entering three new states: Oregon, Maine and Rhode Island. The expansion will give it stores in a total of 43 states nationwide.

Dollar General already operates more than 11,700 stores, but entry into the three new states gives it more greenfield expansion opportunities to pursue while Dollar Tree is busy integrating the recently acquired Family Dollar chain.

Washington, D.C. -- Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to rise an unusually high 16.9% this month over the same time last year as West Coast ports begin to dig out from a backlog of cargo that built up during just-concluded contract negotiations with dockworkers, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.



Fort Worth, Texas – Video game retailer GameStop Corp. has reportedly bid on the leases of 163 stores that bankrupt consumer electronic chain RadioShack Corp. is abandoning as of March 1. According to Reuters, GameStop’s total bid equaled about $2.44 million, or $15,000 per lease.

Loblaw is already Canada’s largest retailer and it plans to stay that way by spending more than $1 billion this year on new stores, e-commerce expansion and supply chain improvements.

As Canada's largest network of corporate and independently owned retail stores and formats, each employing between 20 and 300 employees, Loblaw's investment is expected to create more than 20,000 jobs through store staffing and construction.

Framingham, Mass. – Staples Inc. underwent a difficult fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 as the company swung from a profit to a loss on special charges, faced investor pressure to change its board, sluggish sales and deal with fallout from its plan to acquire its largest competitor.  

New York -- Grocery distributor and retailer SpartanNash has promoted Dave Staples, current executive VP and CFO, to COO. Staples will oversee all three operating segments of the company: retail, wholesale and military distribution. He will continue to serve as CFO until his replacement is hired.

Staples joined SpartanNash in January 2000, serving as the company’s executive VP and CFO since November of 2000

Cincinnati – Benefits from its acquisition of the Harris-Teeter grocery chain, which The Kroger Co. acquired in January 2014, helped boost results at Kroger during fourth quarter 2014. It was the supermarket giant’s 45th consecutive quarter of same-store sales growth.

Kroger’s net income rose 23% to $518 million, beating Wall Street expectations with a 22% increase from $422 million last year.

The labor dispute at the West Coast ports and harsh winter weather are among the reasons Conn's reported a drop in same store sales for February.

Conn's said same store sales dropped 5.8% in February, compared to a 14.9% increase in the prior-year period.