News

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears is encouraging customer feedback for the products it sells by offering shoppers the chance to vote for their favorite participating charity every time they post a product review. Through its "Love/Hate: Share Your Thoughts, Send Some Love" project, Sears is offering customers the chance to share their opinion -- good or bad -- on products and in return vote for one of four charities to receive a grand prize of $100,000. The participating charities competing for the grand prize  include the American Cancer Society, St.

Indianapolis -- Hhgregg Inc.'s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings jumped as the chain collected $39.6 million in life insurance proceeds due to the death of executive chairman and former CEO Jerry W. Throgmartin.

Throgmartin, who died Jan. 22 at age 57, served as chairman and CEO of Hhgregg from 2003 to 2009 and led it through a 2007 initial public offering of stock. Hhgregg said Wednesday it collected the proceeds from a "key man" life insurance policy.

Dallas -- Family Express has improved its inventory management operations significantly by deploying Retalix Ltd.’s demand-driven replenishment solution across its convenience stores in Northwestern Indiana, Retalix said.

Redlands, Calif. -- Ascena Retail Group, whose brands include Dressbarn, Maurices, and Justice, is integrating Esri GIS analysis tools, demographic data, and map visualization into its business processes.

Blue Bell, Pa. -- PDS, a developer of human resource, benefits, recruiting, and payroll systems, announced that convenience store operator Wawa has gone live with PDS’ Vista HRMS 4.1 application. The chain has been a customer of PDS since 1987.

New York -- American Eagle Outfitters earned a better-than-expected $39.7 million for the quarter ended April 28, compared with $28.3 million in the same period last year.

The company had said earlier first-quarter sales rose 18% to $719 million. Same-store sales were up 17%.

Dallas -- Zale Corp reported a narrower third-quarter loss on Wednesday.

Zale’s net loss narrowed by about a half to $4.5 million in the third quarter ended April 30, from $9 million a year ago.

Revenues for the quarter ended April 30, 2012 rose 8.1% to $445 million, compared with $412 million in the same period last year. Same-store sales increased 8%.

Hingham, Mass. -- Talbots Inc. said is extending its talks with Sycamore Partners about an acquisition offer. It is the second time the chain has extended the talks.

Talbots has extended the period of time during which it will talk solely with the private equity firm about its $211 million takeover offer until Thursday.

The first time Talbots extended the exclusivity period was a week ago, when it announced that the talks would continue until Wednesday.

Columbus, Ohio -- Big Lots Inc. posted a lower-than-expected adjusted profit for the first quarter and cuts its full-year earnings outlook.

Big Lots' first-quarter earnings fell 22% to $40.7 million, from $52.5 million a year ago. Sales increased 5.4% to $1.29 billion. Same-store sales edged down 0.8%.

Net profit margin declined to 3.1% from 4.3% a year ago.
 

Minneapolis -- Target announced it will now offer shoppers the shopkick app via their smartphones. The service will allow shoppers to earn points for shopping at Target that can be redeemed for a variety of rewards.

“In our test launch, Target guests in seven cities had the opportunity to experience shopkick at Target and we received rave reviews. Now guests nationwide can start earning valuable points just by shopping our stores,” said Bonnie Gross, Target VP marketing and guest engagement.