News

St. Louis, Mo. -- Brown Shoe Co Inc. on Tuesday  posted a smaller second-quarter loss, helped by cost-cutting and higher sales at its Famous Footwear stores. The retailer also raised the lower end of its full-year profit outlook.

Brown Shoe’s quarterly loss narrowed to $2.5 million, compared with a loss of $4.6 million a year earlier.

Revenue decreased  to $599.3 million. Same-store sales rose 3.9%.
 

New York -- Ralph Lauren Corp. has appointed Christopher H. Peterson as SVP and CFO. He succeeds Tracey Travis, who resigned in July to join The Estee Lauder Cos. Inc.

Most recently, Peterson served as CFO of Proctor & Gamble Co.’s Global Household Care division.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — As tropical storm Isaac barrels down on the Gulf Coast area, CVS/pharmacy has announced that, while complying with any mandatory evacuation order given by local officials, it is keeping its stores in affected areas open for as long as possible and stocking them with such storm preparedness items as water, batteries, flashlights and other products to help in an emergency.

Certain locations present unique challenges when it comes to building and maintaining stores, and Hawaii qualifies in both instances. Ryno Irwin, CEO of Hawaii Retail Services, Makaha, Hawaii, spoke with Chain Store Age about logistics and demographics challenges in the Aloha State.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and its Associate Member Council (AMC) have awarded E. & J. Gallo Winery and PepsiCo Inc. with the 2012 CPG Awards for Innovation and Creativity. The award is given annually to companies that have demonstrated creativity, innovation, and have made a significant impact on the industry knowledge base.
 

NEW YORK — A switch to LED lighting technology in its refrigerated coolers has resulted in combined energy and maintenance savings of more than $1 million annually for convenience store operator Wawa.

The new technology, Immersion from GE Lighting Solutions, has been installed in Wawa’s 600 locations across the Mid-Atlantic region, and has reduced refrigerated cooler/freezer electricity and maintenance expense by a combined 78% since its adoption.

RA'ANANA, Israel — Delhaize Groug has enlisted the services of Retalix for in-store software for Delhaize Group's 3,300 locations -- including more than 20,000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals -- across Eurasia and the United States.

By Jim Porçarelli, Active International

It’s an all-too-familiar sight these days. A man walks into a local retail establishment. He browses the products. He finds one he likes. He tests it out, asks a few questions of a salesperson -- and then snaps an image of the product’s barcode with his cell phone and walks out the door.