News

Build-A-Bear Workshop has transformed its stores into Santa's Workshops to provide toys for all the children on the "nice list," with the help of Santa's reindeer team. The company said it is introducing eight lovable reindeer and extending play beyond plush with the launch of an exclusive holiday app: Santa's Merry Mission. Guests are encouraged to visit buildabear.com/teamsanta to download the app and learn about each of Santa's merry reindeer.

St. Louis -- Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. is offering an exclusive holiday app, “Santa's Merry Mission.” On the Team Santa site, children can take a personality quiz to determine which of the eight reindeer is their favorite, and then follow the steps to create their own plush toy.   

CVS Health has confirmed a report that it is planning to open a CVS Health Digital Innovation Lab this winter in Boston that will focus on “building customer-centric experiences in health care.”

Philadelphia –- Urban Outfitters missed Wall Street expectations for the third quarter of fiscal 2015 with a larger-than-predicted 33% decline in net income to $47.14 million from $70.26 million in the same period a year earlier. In addition, same-store sales fell 1% compared to expectations of flat results.  

Richmond, Canada –- Canadian casual dining chain Boston Pizza has selected the Paytronix Rewards platform as the foundation for its new Boston Pizza MyBP Program. Boston Pizza selected Paytronix because of its expertise in casual dining and integration with both the POSitouch point of sale system and the ONOSYS online ordering system.   

Just in time for the peak holiday shopping season, Sears is introducing "Reserve It" – a free service that lets Shop Your Way members pick out apparel and footwear in stock at their local Sears, put the items on hold, and then try them on once they arrive at the store.

Los Angeles -- Guitar Center has named retailing veteran Darrell Webb as president and CEO, effective Nov. 17, 2014.    Webb previously served as chairman and CEO of Sports Authority from 2011 to 2013.   

Mississauga, Canada -- Canadian shoppers are off to an earlier start with holiday shopping. UPS Canada's annual Black Friday survey conducted by Leger shows that one-third of Canadians plan to take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.    The findings forecast that 20% of Canadian consumers will travel to the U.S. to shop for Black Friday deals and 32% of Canadian consumers will make online Cyber Monday purchases from U.S. retailers.