News

Fast-casual pizza concept, PizzaRev, is positioned for growth

PizzaRev opened a concept test kitchen in Los Angeles in April 2012. Today, it has nine company-owned restaurants with 19 more company and franchised stores on the way.

Dick’s Sporting Goods opened its Field & Stream prototype store last summer and next month the first of eight stores planned for 2014 arrives on the shores of Lake Erie.

The northwestern Pennsylvania community will be home to Dick’s third Field & Stream store with an opening set for June 13. Dick’s began experimenting with the potential new growth format last August when it opened its first location near its home town of Pittsburgh in the suburb of Cranberry Township. A second location opened later in 2013 in Crescent Springs, Ky.

New York -- Andrea Weiss, a 30-year retail veteran, and Bill Mirabito, a digital innovator, have teamed up to form The O Alliance, a consulting firm designed to help retailers better target today’s, multichannel digitally-savvy shoppers.
 

Discount retailing has undergone a major transformation in recent years

Toward the end of 2008, it became painstakingly obvious to retailers that impulse spending was out and frugal saving was in. Faced with an imminent recession, staggering job loss and quickly depleting discretionary and savings accounts, consumers began to shift their focus to value. The impact of such a large-scale economic event and an abrupt consumer focus shift would appear to alter the fundamental realities of retail.

Sales from new stores as well as a nearly 7% same-store sales increase bolstered Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage’s second quarter ended March 31.

Net sales increased 22.4% to $130.3 million over the same period in fiscal year 2013 due to a $16.6 million increase in sales from new stores and a 6.9%, increase in comparable store sales.

New York -- J. Crew Group Inc. is developing a new store format in the budget fashion sector. The company has created a brand called “J. Crew Mercantile,” and filed an application to trademark the phrase for selling clothing and accessories, both online and in stores, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

The trademark application is still pending, the report said. The new brand would sell merchandise and prices that are similar to its J. Crew Factory outlet concept.

Walgreens provided an up-close look at its new location in Evanston, Ill. — distinguished as the nation’s first net zero energy store — during a super-session at this year’s SPECS conference. Initial engineering estimates — which can vary due to the weather, store operations, systems performance and other factors — indicate that the store will use 200,000 kilowatt hours per year of electricity while generating 220,000 kilowatt hours per year.

Atlanta – Havertys reported declining year-over-year net income and sales during the first quarter of fiscal 2014, which the retailer attributed to a 0.9% drop in same-store sales and out-of-period gross profit adjustment in the first quarter of fiscal 2013. The company still plans to open three new stores in its largest markets.

Net income dropped 26% to $6.13 million, from $8.26 million. Net sales declined 2% to $181.7 million, from $186.1 million.