News

A trio of top executives at The Buckle were elevated to new roles at the 463 store specialty retailer.

Kelli Molczyk, with the retailer since 1999, was named Vice President of Women’s Merchandising after most recently serving as Divisional Merchandise Manager. Prior to that she held a variety of roles with the company in which she was instrumental in design and marketing efforts.

Issaquah, Wash. – Costco Wholesale Corp. beat Wall Street expectations for net income and sales during the first quarter of fiscal 2015.  Net income totaled $496 million, up 17% from $425 million the same period a year earlier.   Lower opening expenses and higher interest income helped boost profits.   Total revenue grew 7% to $26.87 million from $25.02 million. Total same-store sales rose 5%.

Menlo Park, Calif. – Facebook is improving its Facebook Search feature with emphasis on personalized results and mobile functionality. The social network has updated its internal search feature to provide uniquely targeted results designed to make it easy for users to find posts that have been shared with them.  

San Francisco – To serve the needs of tech-oriented holiday shoppers, “Wired” is opening a pop-up store in New York City and an e-shop at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The annual holiday pop-up in New York showcases items hand-selected by “Wired” editors and curators, and will be open Dec. 11-21.    

Arlington, Va. - Gift cards will surpass $124 billion in sales in 2014, up 5% from 2013. According to from advisory firm CEB TowerGroup, the gift card market should undergo an annual growth rate of 5-6% through 2017, but double-digit growth rates experienced in recent years have peaked and subsided.

SC Johnson chief talks transparency SC Johnson CEO Fisk Johnson said his company wants to “lay it all out there” when it comes to transparency and greater disclosure in the consumer goods industry.

Speaking at the 2014 Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) annual meeting, Johnson discussed the critical need for the industry to build trust so families can feel comfortable with and believe in the products they bring home. He also said the industry should be clear and fact-based in environmental discussions, and advocate for better regulation.

ATLANTA - EarthLink Holdings Corp., a managed network and cloud solutions provider, announced that Mississippi-based Hancock Fabrics recently selected EarthLink to simplify infrastructure operations via a comprehensive, secure managed network solution.    Once implemented throughout all locations, Hancock Fabrics will rely on its private EarthLink MPLS network to run in-store applications including point-of-sale, inventory management and employee communications and training.  

New York - The cost of healthcare, the ability to maintain margins
 and the ability to continue to grow revenue are the top business challenges in the retail sector. That’s according to GE Capital’s new national survey of c-suite executives at middle-market companies (ranging from $10 million - <$1 billion in sales).