News

Atlanta – Havertys Furniture Company Inc. reports its total written business for the third quarter to date of 2014 is up approximately 3.1% from the same period last year and written same-store sales are up approximately 3.5%. This increase was driven by a record setting Labor Day holiday weekend for which total written business was up approximately 7.4% from the same four-day period the prior year.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. - Kmart is offering a no-money-down layaway program to members of the Shop Your Way loyalty program for the holiday season, starting Sept. 4. Kmart's layaway program includes both online and in-store contracts for coveted items across dozens of merchandise categories, including apparel, home, toys and electronics.

Kmart is also running a new ad for the program both on TV and YouTube.

Dallas - The Retail Services business of Alliance Data Systems Corp. has signed a multi-year agreement to provide co-brand and private label credit card services for Meijer. Alliance Data will provide credit card marketing services for the Meijer store-branded credit card and the Meijer Platinum MasterCard, which will offer card members the opportunity to accrue Meijer Rewards points for every dollar spent at Meijer, Meijer gas stations and Meijer.com, as well as on all other purchases made with the card.

Mooresville, N.C. - Lowe's Companies Inc. has agreed to sell $450 million of floating rate notes due 2019, $450 million of 3.125% notes due 2024 and $350 million of 4.250% notes due 2044. Estimated net proceeds from this offering will be approximately $1.24 billion, after deducting offering expenses and underwriters' discounts.

Atlanta – The alleged security breach that recently hit The Home Depot Inc. may have compromised credit and debit card data at nearly all of the company’s stores. According to the security website Krebsonsecurity.com, the unique ZIP codes of a large batch of new cards listed for sale on underground hacker sites shows a more than 99% overlap with nearby Home Depot stores, suggesting a widespread breach.

To help encourage early detection of diabetes in communities around the United States, Sam’s Club Pharmacy will host free diabetes screenings to both members and non-members on Sept. 13 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
 
The diabetes screenings are free, confidential and available to the public at all Sam’s Club locations with a pharmacy (599 locations). The screenings, valued at $250, include tests for:

Dr Pepper Snapple Group has signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire the business assets of Davis Beverage Group and Davis Bottling Co.

If completed, the acquisition would include most of Davis’ direct store delivery territory in Pennsylvania and a portion of its New Jersey territory, as well as its production and distribution facilities, delivery vehicles, vending equipment and other assets.

Walgreens reported August sales of $6.4 billion, an increase of 3.6% from the same month in fiscal 2013. Total sales for fiscal 2014 were $76.4 billion, an increase of 5.8% from fiscal 2013.
 
Total front-end sales increased 2.1% in August compared with the same month in fiscal 2013, while comparable-store front-end sales increased 1.4%. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 1.7% while basket size increased 3.1%.
 

Amazon has rolled out KDP Kids, a program designed to help children’s book authors prepare, publish and promote both illustrated and chapter books in Kindle Stores worldwide.

Children’s book authors can use Amazon’s new Kindle Kids’ Book Creator tool to create illustrated children’s books that take advantage of Kindle features like text popups. Once the book is ready, authors can upload it to KDP, and use KDP’s category, age and grade range filters to help Amazon customers choose the right books for their kids.

Speed Commerce, a leading provider of omnichannel e-commerce services, has appointed former Oracle executive Mark Steele as the company's VP of global sales and marketing.

Steele boasts more than two decades of sales experience with a proven track record of success in firms ranging from Global Fortune 100 to early and mid-stage venture backed startups.