News

DALLAS — Three weeks after being named the first civilian director/CEO in the nearly 117-year history of the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, Tom Shull officially took the reins today of the $10-billion military retailer. Shull replaced the Exchange’s last uniformed Commander, Brig. Gen. Fran Hendricks.

FORT WORTH, Texas — With Pier 1 delivering yet another quarter of comps and earnings growth, it's easy to forget that the retailer was once struggling just to make a profit. And much of the credit for Pier 1's turnaround lies with president and CEO Alex Smith. So, it is no surprise that the company has decided to offer Smith a three-year renewal and extension of his employment agreement.

With Target set to open its first stores in Canada in less than a year, one source of competition will come from the rapidly growing Dollarama chain.

The 721 unit Montreal-based Dollarama chain said its first quarter same-store sales increased by a weather-aided 8.1%, and total first quarter sales increase 14.9% to $398 million for the period ended April 29. Earnings per share increased 40% to 56 cents from 40 cents. The gross margin rate increased to 36.3% of sales from 35.7% and expenses declined to 18.5% of sales compared to 19.7%.

Issaquah, Wash. -- Costco Wholesale Corp. said Thursday it has acquired partner Controladora Comercial Mexicana’s 50% share interest in Costco Mexico for approximately $760 million, funded by dividend proceeds, cash and investment balances.

The Costco México joint venture has been 50% owned by each of Costco Wholesale and CCM and operated by Costco Wholesale. :

Jaime Gonzalez Solana will continue as CEO of Costco México.
 

Cincinnati -- The Kroger Co. reported Thursday that net income in the first quarter rose to $439.4 million, from $432.3 million last year.

The operator of namesake stores as well as Ralphs, Food 4 Less and others, also said it authorized a $1 billion share buyback.

Sales during the period were $29.06 billion, up from $27.46 billion last year but missing Wall Street’s expected $29.16 billion. Same-store sales rose 4.2%, the grocer’s 34th straight quarter of growth.

By Jundong Song, [email protected]

Wal-Mart, the largest grocer in the world, does not run any traditional loyalty programs to enroll and reward customers for their loyalty. Will this prove to be a costly mistake?

Giving competitors an edge

An “extremely unusual circumstance,” is how police described the situation that unfolded this week in a Walmart parking lot where a Chicago couple was arrested after several of their children were discovered bound and blindfolded.

TORONTO — A study of big-box retail consumers, released Thursday, found that only two in five consumers believe that retailers value their input, and just 29% believe it is acted upon.

According to the Consumer Insights Panel survey conducted by customer experience management solution provider Empathica Inc., 85% of the 6,500 consumers surveyed have provided some form of feedback to big-box retailers, yet only 46% believe that brands actually use this feedback to make constructive changes to the customer experience.