News

Chicago Sports Depot, a one-stop shopping destination for all things White Sox as well as other Chicago sports teams, offers consumers the ultimate in sports merchandising. The 15,000-sq.-ft. store was developed through a close collaboration between Delaware North Companies and the Chicago White Sox, with RGLA Solutions, Schiller Park, Ill., serving as the design architect.

Retailing Today sister publication Drug Store News spent time recently with Sam’s Club’s Jason Reiser, VP health and wellness, operations compliance. To view a video interview of Reiser discussing shopper engagement, the value of personal relationships and the impact of the economy on business in 2012, click here to be redirected to Drugstorenews.com.

Increasing smartphone and tablet penetration rates ensure mobile devices will figure more prominently into brands’ customer engagement strategies going forward. That’s old news. For some fresh thinking on the subject, click here to see what Jeff Weidauer, VP marketing and strategy at Little Rock, Ark.-based Vestcom International has to say on the subject. 

Social media has transformed the way brands connect with consumers, which is why anyone interested in the future of retail owes it to themselves to spend at least a few minutes combing through the registration statement Facebook filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week in connection with a planned public stock offering.

Walmart was never made to feel welcome in its Southern California expansion efforts, so it was interesting this week to see researchers at the University of Southern California release a study that could come in handy next time Walmart seeks approval for a new store.

Walmart is poised to top EPA’s Green Power Partnership rankings within a few years as renewable energy sources account for an increasing percentage of the company’s usage.

January may be the least important month of the year, as retail experts like to point out, but a sale is a sale and judging from monthly results from the dwindling number of companies who still report them, it was a pretty good month.

That bodes well for Walmart and supports the thesis that the company capped off its fiscal year with solid results to complement the expectation that November and December sales were also solid thanks to merchandising changes, the return of layaway, early opening hours on Black Friday and a heavy holiday marketing spend.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — HSN announced that it has partnered with food lifestyle brand Bon Appetit on Tuesday, Jan. 31 for the highly successful launch of the new Bon Appetit Collection on HSN. One of the most successful culinary launches in the retailer's history, the debut of the new line of cookware, small appliances and kitchen tools resulted in more than 20,000 units being sold in one day.

NEW YORK — Online fashion retailer Bluefly announced that it has promoted Joseph Park, previously COO, to CEO, effective immediately, replacing Melissa Payner, who resigned as CEO and a member of the company’s board of directors. Park is also replacing Payner on the board of directors. Park joined Bluefly as COO in June 2011 after founding and leading several successful Internet businesses during the past fourteen years.

NEW YORK — Kohl’s Department Stores and Walmart rank among the nation’s top purchasers of power according to the EPA’s most recent Green Power Partnership report. Kohl’s placed second in the ranking, while Walmart came in at third, followed by Whole Foods Market. Intel Corp. maintained its long-held top spot. Other retailers in the top 10 included Starbucks (No. 7) and Staples (No.9).