News

Cincinnati -- Kroger Co. reported Thursday that net income for the quarter ended Nov. 3 rose to $316.5 million, compared with $195.9 million in the year-ago period.

Total sales rose 6% to $21.81 billion, beating Wall Street’s expected revenue of $21.55 billion.

Same-store sales rose 3.2%.

ABILENE, Kan. — Broad-line retailer ALCO Stores asserted that it is off to a favorable start this holiday season, after reporting a 2.7% in sales from continuing operations for the quarterly period ending November 25.

New York -- J. Crew Group reported Thursday that net income for the third quarter rose to $33.2 million, from $21.6 million in the prior year.

Revenues increased 16% to $555.8 million, and same-store sales increased 10%.

NEW YORK — James Gallagher was named CFO at Bluefly, an online retailer of designer brands founded in 1998 in the heart of New York’s fashion district.

Gallagher comes to Bluefly with more than 33 years of  financial, strategic and operations experience with growth oriented international, entrepreneurial and corporate entities across a broad range of industries, including Internet-focused marketing, e-commerce, entertainment and technology companies.

Digital audience measurement firm comScore has launched a new service called Media Metrix Multi-Platform to help advertisers makes sense of how shoppers are interacting with their brands in an increasingly multi-channel world.

Atlanta -- Year-over-year retail dollar volume growth on Thanksgiving and Black Friday was healthy at 5.6% as many retailers started the holiday shopping season earlier this year and consumers welcomed the opportunity to find bargains, according to a study by First Data Corp.’s First Data SpendTrend analysis for Black Friday 2012 compared with Black Friday 2011. (SpendTrend tracks same-store consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT, closed-loop prepaid cards and checks at U.S. merchant locations.)

Women’s specialty retailer Coldwater Creek said co-founder, chairman and CEO Dennis Pence will relinquish his role of CEO at year end.

Replacing Pence and joining the board of directors of the Sandpoint, Idaho-based chain will be Jill Brown Dean, the company’s current president and chief merchandising officer. Assuming Dean’s role will be Michele Donnan Martin who joins the company as SVP/GMM responsible for all merchandising functions.

New York -- Discounters, which are expected to fare well this holiday season, showed mixed results in November. TJX Cos. reported Thursday that November same-store sales climbed 3%, missing Wall Street’s expected 3.6% rise but beating the retailer’s internal expectations.

Target Corp. saw same-store sales fall in November, hurt by weak sales during the first two weeks. Comps dipped 1%, while Wall Street expected a 2.1% gain. Revenue for the month was essentially flat.