News

Uniqlo has enlisted musician and music producer Pharrell Williams as a collaborator and spokesperson for the UT 2014 spring-summer collection. Launched in 2003, Uniqlo’s UT T-shirt brand is getting a fresh start this year, as “The New Model T,” a collection produced by its creative director and street fashion icon Nigo.

New York -- Phoenix-based Sprouts Farmers Markets Inc. is expanding. The natural-foods supermarket chain expects to open 22 to 24 stores in fiscal 2014, including five locations in the Atlanta area.

Sprouts currently operates more than 165 locations in eight states.

Meanwhile, Gap Inc. continues to expand its newest banner, Athleta, with about 30 additional U.S. stores on tap for fiscal year 2014.

In more store expansion news:

Nike's store in University Village, Seattle, was created as a sanctuary for athletes. The goal is present in every detail in the 6,247-dq.-ft. store, including this quote from company co-founder Bill Bowerman that is painted onto the bleacher board behind the cash wrap: "There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people."

Waban, Mass. -- H.E.B. Grocery, Trader Joe's, Chick-fil-A, and Publix earned the highest scores in the 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings, which ranked 268 companies across 19 industries. Joining those firms in the top 14 spots are Aldi, Food Lion, Sonic Drive-In, credit unions, Dairy Queen, Kroger, Piggly Wiggly, Regions, Sam's Club, and Starbucks.

Think brick-and-mortar retail is doomed in an increasingly digital world? Visit Sephora, where consumers line up to sample the dizzying array of beauty products. Watch as a bunch of excited kids go through the rounds at Build-A-Bear-Workshop. Listen as a pharmacist at Walgreens gives some advice to a harried mom whose kids are coming down with something. Stop in at H-E-B, Whole Foods Market or some other great supermarket and breathe in the tantalizing aromas. Fool around with the latest gadgets at Apple or one of the new generation of AT&T and Verizon stores.

Momentum to continue through 2014

By most accounts, 2013 was a banner year for IPOs. According to Renaissance Capital, a total of 222 companies went public in 2013, marking the best year for the IPO market since 2000. As we predicted in a previous article in Chain Store Age, the retail and consumer products industry played a key role in this IPO activity, accounting for 19 offerings and $8.3 billion in proceeds. This marked a notable increase from the number of offerings seen in 2012 (15) and 2011 (12), according to Renaissance Capital.

Hanover Direct aligns back-end systems for seamless front-end experience

The days of independent silos, of when the Web, phone, catalog and store could be operated separately each with its own unique customer experiences and fulfillment processes, are behind us. Today’s “always connected” consumers demand a seamless experience from the retailers they shop, regardless of channel. And that seamless experience requires extensive alignment of systems on the back end as well as the front end.