News

New York – Despite a slowdown in U.S. retail and consumer merger & acquisition (M&A) activity in second quarter 2013, consumer sentiment and retail sales trends remain positive, along with strong corporate balance sheets and availability of private equity "dry powder," which should help trigger M&A activity during the second half of 2013, according to PwC's U.S. retail and consumer deals insights second quarter 2013 report.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Meijer is preparing to bring in more than 9,000 new hires in response to the company’s move to expand with several store openings and ahead of the fall and holiday selling seasons. 

Since its founding in the early sixties, Meijer has grown at a relatively slow pace compared to retailers like Walmart, Target and Kmart, which were opening their first discount stores at around the same time — the Midwest retailer has 203 stores. But things are picking up, and fast. 

New York – Law firm Morgan & Morgan is investigating potential legal claims against the board of directors of Saks Inc. relating to the proposed acquisition of Saks by Hudson's Bay Company. Morgan & Morgan's investigation concerns whether Saks' board of directors breached its fiduciary duties to act in the best interests of Saks' shareholders and to take all necessary steps to ensure that Saks' shareholders receive the maximum value readily available for their shares of Saks common stock.

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. — The Wet Seal Inc. reported net sales of $137.2 million during the second quarter of fiscal 2013. Despite seeing a 1.5% increase from the second quarter of the previous year, results fell a bit short of the $138.5 million analysts had estimated.

ISSAQUAH, Wash. — Costco Wholesale Corporation reported net sales of $7.87 billion for the month of July, the four weeks ended August 4, an increase of 7% from $7.36 billion during the similar period last year.

For the 48 weeks ended August 4, the company reported net sales of $94.91 billion, an increase of 8% from $87.7 billion during the similar period last year.

In one of the stranger situations in retail right now, J.C. Penney is defending itself against charges by activist investor Bill Ackman that it’s not moving fast enough to hire a full time CEO and remedy a situation that Ackman created when the guy he picked nearly destroyed the company.

New York -- A group of 11 large U.S. retailers that report same-store sales results each month had a generally strong showing in July. However, Thomson Reuters analysis indicates significant discounting helped drive an overall 4.4% increase, more than double the 1.4% same-store sales rise recorded in July of last year.

Doubling sales in any category within a four year time span would be an audacious goal for any retailer, but that was the objective Walmart set for itself in the beer category last fall, according to Bloomberg.