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Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway Inc. has received a request for additional information and documents from the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") in connection with the FTC's review of the previously announced agreement and plan of merger among Safeway and Albertson’s.

Teen retailer Hot Topic is using the appeal of the pre-order and a Disney film tailor made for its core customers to encourage full margin sales and drive traffic to HotTopic.com.

The retailer is featuring a limited edition collection of apparel inspired by Disney’s dark anti-hero “Maleficent,” on its Web site for pre-order beginning April 15. Merchandise will be available in stores and online in May with prices ranging from $29.50 to $54.50.

New York – Total U.S. retail sales during 2013 reportedly reached $4.53 trillion, a 4.2% increase from$4.35 billion in 2012. According to new data from EMarketer, e-commerce sales of $263.3 billion, up 16.9% from $225.3 billion the prior year, helped drive overall retail sales growth.

Non-e-commerce sales totaled about $4.27 billion, a 3.5% increase from $4.12 billion in 2012. In 2014, EMarketer predicts that e-commerce sales in rhe U.S. will grow 15.5% to total $304.1 billion, or 6.4% of total retail sales of $4.73 billion.

The way people shop has completely changed over the past five years. A large part of this change in behavior has been driven by online access to information. Shoppers now have easy access to more product information than ever before. Yet as the modern buying experience has changed dramatically, the in-store experience at most retailers has remained frozen in time. In particular, most sales associates do not have tools at their disposal that might allow them to keep up with the information-empowered shoppers they now serve.
 

Zynga, a leading social game developer, has appointed former Best Buy executive David Lee as CFO and chief accounting officer, effective April 14. Lee will report directly to CEO Don Mattrick.

He succeeds CFO and CAO Mark Vranesh who is leaving the company. Vranesh will work with Lee over the next month to ensure a seamless transition of responsibilities, according to the company.

Because the Easter holiday is in April this year rather than in March as it was last year, Gap already expected March to be a challenging month performance-wise.  

The retailer reported net sales of $1.5 billion for the five-week period ended April 5. Comparable sales for March were down 6% versus a 1 % decrease last year.

“While March performance has been challenging, we remain confident in the opportunities ahead,” said chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy. “We are pleased to reaffirm our full-year EPS guidance range.”

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San Diego – PriceSmart Inc. reported increases in net earnings and revenues during the second quarter of fiscal 2014. Compared to the same period a year earlier, net earnings rose 14% to $28.3 million, from $24.9 million.

Revenues climbed 11% to $674.4 million from $607.4 million. The opening of two new warehouse club stores contributed to PriceSmart’s fiscal performance.