At Home, the fast-growing home decor and accessories retailer, continues to grow its store presence.
The retailer has opened its first Massachusetts location, in Seekonk. It's one of 25 stores the chain will open this year.
Sports Direct, the largest sporting goods retailer in the United Kingdom, has expanded its presence in the United States.
The company announced that it has completed its acquisition of Bob's Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports. It will initially operate a total of some 50 stores in the Northeast and five EMS outdoor adventure schools, along with e-commerce sites for both brands.
A recent job listing by Amazon has raised speculation that the online giant plans to roll out its checkout-free convenience store concept, Amazon Go.
The online giant recently posted a job listing seeking a senior real estate manager for Amazon Go. The role will be based in Seattle and will include travel.
Walmart’s e-commerce arm is shaking up its private label offerings.
Jet.com will increasingly phase out its assortment of Kirkland Signature branded merchandise — Costco’s private label brand. The move is said to help augment efforts among Walmart’s Sam’s Club chain, which is focused on boosting sales among its own store brand, Member’s Mark, according to Bloomberg.
Out-of-state Web-based retailers are taking a stand against paying sales tax in the state of Massachusetts.
According to a directive from the Department of Revenue, any online retailer vendor headquartered outside of the state is required to register, collect and remit sales tax. In Massachusetts, this is 6.25%. The directive applies to companies that sold more than $500,000 annually in the state and made sales for in-state delivery in 100 or more transactions.
There is good news for retailers in a just-released 2017 back-to-school spending forecast.
Retail sales during the back-to-school shopping season of July and August 2017 will grow 4.0% over 2016, according to eMarketer’s forecast. Retail sales in the U.S. during those core months will reach an estimated $857.18 billion, accounting for 17.0% of total retail sales for the year.
Eager to strengthen operations across its enterprise, Supervalu is moving to the cloud.
Through a strategic relationship with Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS), the grocery company is replacing its mainframe technology infrastructure with a new mainframe platform that will offer cloud, back-up, and other solutions and services. The new configuration is designed to improve operations across the independent retailers it supports.
The clear signal sent by these first quarter numbers is that J. Crew is a company in trouble. As much as the business is used to decline, the accelerated pace of deterioration, as evidenced by the 6.3% drop in overall sales and the 12% fall in J. Crew comparables, is worrying. That this weakness comes off the back of negative prior year numbers suggests that the company has not yet reached rock bottom.
