News

The nation’s largest retailer is introducing special financing for its credit cards that comes with an appealing hook.    The new offer provides no-interest financing plans for the Walmart Credit Card and the Walmart Mastercard Credit Card, with plans extending across either six months or 12 months on purchases. Similar to most plans, customers don’t pay any interest during the promotional period. But the Walmart offer is different from most others in that the interest also does not accrue during the promotional period.

Gymboree Corp. is planning a significant reduction in its store fleet.   The retailer is looking to close hundreds of stores part of a restructuring under bankruptcy court protection, The Wall Street Journal reported. The final number of stores, however, has yet to be determined.  

AmazonFresh is expanding its breadth in one of its biggest markets outside the United States.   

Amazon’s signature Dash button may be getting some competition from a rival very soon.   A patent filing by Walmart reveals that the retail giant could be developing an Internet of Things-based device that tracks how shoppers use products in their homes and then electronically reorders merchandise.  

The United Kingdom is preparing for Amazon’s newest technology hub — a lab that will focus on innovations from artificial intelligence to machine learning.   The online giant plans to open a new 60,000 sq. ft. development center in Cambridge this fall. The facility will have the capacity to employ more than 400 associates, including machine learning scientists, knowledge engineers, data scientists, mathematical modelers, speech scientists and software engineers.  

Crate & Barrel has named a new chief executive some three weeks after it let its former one go.   The home furnishings chain has appointed Neela Montgomery as CEO. Montgomery, most recently served as board chair of Crate & Barrel parent Otto Group, will assume the role effective August 1, 2017. She replaces Doug Diemoz, who left in April. http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/crate-barrel-ceo-out  

The retail environment in Canada is proving more challenging than some U.S. retailers had anticipated.     Express said it will close all 17 of its stores in Canada, and discontinue its Canadian operations through its Canadian subsidiary, Express Fashion Apparel Canada Inc. The retailer will continue to operate 635 stores in the United States.      

PEBB Enterprises has acquired Germantown Village Square in Memphis, its second property in Tennessee.   The Boca Raton-based REIT paid $28 million for the 199,629-sq.-ft. mixed-use power center, which houses TJ Maxx, DSW, and Petco alongside office space predominantly occupied The West Clinic, a subsidiary of Baptist Memorial Health Services.