News

Wired, a Conde Nast brand, is getting ready to open a popup store for the ninth consecutive year in New York City, featuring electronics, rare objects d' art, apparel and accessories, musical instruments, kitchen gadgets and adventure gear.

Located in the heart of the Meatpacking District, at 353 West 14th St., the store will be open from noon-8 p.m., Tuesdays through Sundays, from Dec. 4 through Dec. 22. This year’s popup store is sponsored by Citi, the 2014 Corvette Stingray and Delta Air Lines.

Same store sales increased 10.1% during November at J.C. Penney, the company announced during an update on its holiday performance.

In addition to the double digit comp performance, J.C. Penney said its e-commerce sales through jcp.com continued to be strong, running well ahead of last year, consistent with last month's trend.

Dan Sullivan was elevated to the role of CFO at Ahold USA following the departure of Paula Price.

Price spent nearly five years there, but decided to take her career in a new direction, according to a statement by the supermarket operator, subsidiary of Netherlands-based Royal Ahold and owner of the Stop & Shop and Giant Food Stores chains. Price will lecture at a leading university on leadership and technical topics related to her unique business journey in addition to complementing her existing corporate and non-profit board positions, according to the company.

Leading global beauty company Coty has appointed Patrice de Talhouët as CFO. He will replace Sergio Pedreiro who will stay on at Coty through March 2014 to provide a seamless transition for de Talhouët, as well as to complete Coty's fiscal 2014 second quarter earnings release.

Online sales on Cyber Monday increased by 16% to $2.29 billion compared to last year, according to Adobe’s Digital Index 2013, and a record 18.3% of those sales came from mobile devices — a surge of 80% compared to last year.

Consumer shopping preferences continued to shift online with Cyber Monday being the fifth day in a row of record-breaking online sales. While “brick and click” retailers dominated Thanksgiving weekend sales, Internet retailers generated the most sales on Cyber Monday with a 42% share.

Safeway has reached a definitive agreement to sell 11 of its Dominick's stores in the Chicago metropolitan area in a cash and lease assumption transaction to Roundy's. Roundy's will take possession of the stores during a transition period that will take place in the next two months.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

Ascena Retail Group, parent company of Lane Bryant, Dressbarn and Justice, may have just reported same store sales growth across all its formats and achieved Thanksgiving weekend sales objectives, but president and CEO David Jaffe remains cautious in his outlook for the remainder of the holiday season.

As so many other retailers have noted in recent weeks, Jaffe said this year’s highly competitive, promotional and compressed holiday season makes it difficult to know how the next few weeks will play out, despite the company’s recent performance.

Chicago -- A majority (88%) of retailers are using social media as part of their 2013 holiday marketing blitz. But they still remain divided about mobile marketing, with only 38% using it this year, down from 50% in 2012.

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway Inc. announced it has reached a definitive agreement to sell 11 of its Dominick's stores in the Chicago metropolitan area in a cash and lease assumption transaction to Roundy's, Inc. Roundy's will take possession of the stores during a transition period that will take place over the next two months.

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot, formed by the merger of Office Depot and OfficeMax, announced the appointment of Stephen Hare as executive VP and CFO, effective immediately. Hare replaces co-CFO Mike Newman, who has retired from the company, and interim Co-CFO Deb O’Connor, who has returned to her position as senior VP, finance and co-chief accounting officer.