News

Fort Worth, Texas – RadioShack has completed a new financing totaling $835 million. That figure includes a $535 million credit facility led by GE Capital, Corporate Retail Finance and a $250 million secured term loan led by Salus Capital Partners, LLC.  

New York – Leonard Riggio, chairman of Barnes & Noble, has reportedly sold 2 million shares of company stock. According to Reuters, Riggio’s sale, reported in an SEC regulatory filing, lowers Riggio’s stake in Barnes & Noble to 26.3%.

BitPay, a company that allows merchants to use bitcoin, has reported a spike in transactions this year.

The company has processed more than $100 million in transactions this year, and its membership now includes more than 15,500 merchants in 200 countries. The number of merchants has increased by more than 50%, while transaction volume has tripled since the creation of the All Inclusive Pricing Plan in October and the integration with Shopify in November.

Issaquah, Wash. – Costco Wholesale Corp. increased profit and sales during the first quarter of fiscal 2014 that missed Wall Street expectations hurt by a 5.5% rise in operating expenses, lower gasoline prices, and weak foreign currencies.
Profit rose 2% $425 million, from $416 million a year earlier.

Net sales rose 5% to $24.47, missing estimates of $25.4 million.

Kathy Hendricks, who had overseen ABC Supply’s information technology function for 28 years, most recently as VP and chief information officer, has been appointed to the newly created position of executive director of customer connectivity.

In her new role, she will lead ABC Supply’s strategic initiative to design, develop and implement the new information technology services that will connect ABC Supply to its customers and make it easier for its customers to run their businesses.

Chicago -- Consumers spent a majority of last week recovering from “Black Weekend” holiday shopping. ShopperTrak – the world’s largest provider of retail shopper analytics – reported that for the week of Dec. 2 to Dec. 8, brick-and-mortar sales of general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other products (GAFO) fell 2.9% compared to the same time last year. Last week’s retail shopper traffic decreased 21.6% compared to the same time period in 2012.

Analysis from price intelligence firm Profitero showed that Amazon.com makes more than 2.5 million price changes every day, compared with a little more than 50,000 total price changes made by brick-and-mortar retailers Walmart and Best Buy throughout November.

Profitero’s analysis also revealed that Amazon.com has increased its number of daily price changes 10-fold during the last 12 months. At the beginning of December 2012, the online retailer implemented just 269,113 price changes.

Discount online shopping retailer Overstock.com has added prescription brand-name glasses and sunglasses to its website.

"Adding prescription eyewear to the Overstock website, with great names at great prices, seemed a natural fit," states Overstock.com chairman and CEO Patrick M. Byrne. "Unbeatable prices, fashionable styles, ease of ordering, stellar customer service, made the whole concept work for us and for our customers."