News

As part of its efforts to reinvent its business and culture, Staples has opened a health and fitness center at its global corporate headquarters, in Framingham, Massachusetts. It is the latest in a series of updates to the campus, including a cafeteria stocked with healthier food options and a more open and collaborative floor plan, both designed by Business Interiors by Staples.

Kmart has unveiled its annual Fab 15 holiday toy list, a week after Toys “R” Us announced its Fabulous 15.

To help drive sales, Kmart has also unveiled a "Trending Toy Ticker" at Kmart.com/Fab15. The ticker continually updates the top-selling toys as the season progresses to help shoppers keep up to date with the latest trends.

As part of its holiday strategy, Toys"R"Us plans to hire 45,000 seasonal employees at its stores and distribution centers nationwide, more than doubling the company's workforce as it continues preparing for the highly contested shopping season ahead.

Following fourth quarter results that missed Wall Street expectations, Ascena Retail is looking ahead to fiscal 2015, which CEO David Jaffe said will see the continuation of a critical, multi-year investment to build the company’s omnichannel platform.

The company reported net earnings of $15.7 million, compared with $29.8 million in the year-ago period.

Just three weeks after Alco appointed a brand new board of directors, the company reported a net loss of $7 million in the second quarter, compared to net earnings of $800,000 a year earlier, thanks in part to growing costs of advertising, new stores and store support.

PayItSimple, a new service that lets consumers charge any purchase on their existing credit cards and pay it back in monthly, interest free installments, has launched in the United States.

PayItSimple supports an omnichannel shopping experience and is available for e-commerce, brick-and-mortar, mobile and all other payment platforms.

PayPal is further expanding its relationship with payment service provider BitPay, which specializes in e-commerce, B2B and enterprise solutions for the bitcoin digital currency. The first joint project is an integration with PayPal’s Payments Hub, which is PayPal’s alternative payment platform for digital goods.
 

Mahwah, N.J. -- Ascena Retail Group Inc. on Monday reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $15.7 million, compared with $29.8 million in the year-ago period. Its results missed Wall Street expectations.

Revenues for the quarter were $1.18 billion, compared with $1.20 billion in the prior year. The company attributed the decrease challenging tween market conditions at Justice and inventory-related issues at Lane Bryant. Results were partially offset by positive comp growth at Maurices and Catherines and new store growth at Maurices.

Memphis, Tenn. -- AutoZone on Monday reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $373.7 million from $347.8 million a year earlier. The chain also reported a milestone as its net income for the full year rose 7.7% to $1.1 billion.


The auto parts retailer’s revenue in the fourth quarter rose 3.4% to $3.05 billion in the period, up falling short of Street forecasts of $3.06 billion. Same-store sales rose 2.1%.

New York -- British supermarket retailer Tesco suspended four executives, including its U.K. managing director, after revealing that its half-year profit was overstated by $407 million, the BBC reported. The retailer has launched an investigation headed by Deloitte.

Tesco CEO Dave Lewis, who took over the struggling company in September, said the decision to ask employees to stand aside was not an indication of guilt or that disciplinary action was warranted. He declined to speculate on what the investigation might turn up.