News

New York – The weekend of Dec. 20-21, which included “Super Saturday” (the last Saturday before Christmas) saw the highest daily back-to-back Internet traffic from online consumer retail shopping activity since tracking began before the Thanksgiving weekend. According to the Verizon Retail Index, average daily traffic was 119 on Saturday and 122 on Sunday.  

Teen and pre-teen retailer Five Below landed two senior executives from Walmart.com and Ascena Retail Group for key roles as it looks to accelerate an already rapid pace of growth.

Walmart.com president and CEO Joel Anderson will join Five Below as president in July to oversee all aspects of merchandising, stores and marketing. Eric Specter, most recently EVP and chief integration officer for Ascena, will serve as Five Below’s chief administrative officer and oversee supply chain, information technology and real estate.

The board of directors of Fred's Super Dollar on Thursday named Jerry Shore CEO of the company. Shore's promotion follows the board's receipt and acceptance of notification by Bruce Efird of his intention to leave the company upon the expiration of his employment contract.

San Francisco – Although the mobile payment partnership that Starbucks and Square launched in 2012 will soon be ending, Square is reportedly still actively working with Starbucks. According to the San Francisco Business Journal, Square is publicly informing its users that Starbucks is using Square technology to process payments at 7,000 stores.  

Deerfield, Ill. – Cost synergies from its ongoing merger with U.K. drugstore chain Alliance Boots GmBH helped boost net earnings at Walgreen Co. 16% to $809 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 from $695 million the same quarter a year earlier. The combined synergies for Walgreens and Alliance Boots in the first quarter were approximately $140 million and remain on track to reach at least $650 million in fiscal 2015.

Sales rose 7% to $19.6 billion from $18.33 billion. Same-store sales increased 5.7%.

Guitar Center has chosen retailing veteran Darrell Webb to be the company's new president and CEO. From 2011 to 2013, Webb served as chairman and CEO of the Sports Authority.   Webb has more than 30 years of experience in retailing and has led several multibillion dollar companies through periods of rapid growth.  

Sarasota, Florida - The Mall at University Town Center, located in Sarasota, Florida, and owned by Taubman, has launched a free app designed to make shopping easier and more personalized. The free "Mall at UTC" iOS mobile shopping app offers first-of-its-kind indoor navigation technology developed by SPREO. The app is being piloted at UTC now, but is scheduled to roll out to Taubman properties across the U.S. over the next year.    

Walgreens said stronger sales from established stores helped it trump analyst expectations for the first quarter, even as the company's acquisition of European retailer Alliance Boots remains on track to close this month.

Walgreens reported a 16.4% lift in quarterly profit to $809 million that was credited to the 222 million prescriptions filled for the first quarter ended Nov. 30.