News

Belk is gearing up for its bi-annual Kidfest in-store event Saturday, March 29, from noon–3 p.m. at all locations.

It's an innovative way for the Charlotte, N.C.-based department store, which operates 299 locations in 16 Southern states, generate customer traffic, not to mention buzz among shoppers as moms talk about their kids being in the show.

Oak Brook, Ill. – U.S. same-store sales dropped 1.4% at McDonald’s Corp. during February 2014, with global same-store sales declining 0.3%.

Other segment same-store results for McDonald’s during the month included a 0.6% increase in Europe and a 2.6% decrease in Asia-Pacific/Middle East/Africa (APMEA). The company cited severe weather and challenging industry dynamics in affecting its U.S. same-store sales performance.

Rite Aid introduced a new program, dubbed Rite Aid Health Alliance, which is a health management collaboration among various healthcare providers that provides comprehensive care and support to individuals with chronic and poly-chronic health conditions and helps them achieve health improvement goals established by their physicians.

Essen, Germany – German supermarket chain Aldi Nord has selected the SAP for Retail solution portfolio to support its dynamic growth and modernize its retailing. The standard enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution will replace the company’s previous in-house system and will be used to manage retail processes at all company locations, from orders and warehouse management to store deliveries.

New Albany, Ohio – Abercrombie & Fitch Co. reportedly plans to shift its marketing and merchandising focus from teens to college students. According to Bloomberg, Abercrombie executives said they will shift marketing, assortments and pricing to appeal to the collegiate market.

Melville, N.Y. – Sbarro LLC has reportedly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time since 2011. According to Reuters, Sbarro wants to reduce its debt by 80% via a pre-packaged reorganization that would allow it to exit bankruptcy before May 7, 2014.

Most of Sbarro’s creditors reportedly support the plan, which it said is necessitated by declining mall traffic and an unsustainable balance sheet. The plan requires court approval and Sbarro will reportedly also seek better offers from potential buyers.

According to reports, eBay is urging shareholders to reject a slate of board members nominated by activist investor Carl Icahn and instead support nominees picked by the company.

Reuters has reported that eBay is asking shareholders to re-elect existing directors CEO John Donahoe, company co-founder and managing director Fred Anderson, Intuit co-founder Scott Cook and former Agilent Technologies CEO Edward Barnholt.

In recent years, the retail industry’s view of technology has expanded from something only the IT department needs to be concerned about to something that other departments, such as marketing and finance, also share an active interest in. But as demonstrated by the speakers lined up for the March 11 Tech Boot Camps at this week’s SPECS conference in Dallas, technology is also a concern of operational departments such as store planning, energy management, construction management, and real estate.

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