News

Former retail industry executive Austin Ligon was named to the newly created position of non-executive chairman of the board at Gazelle where he will play a more active role in development of the company’s consumer electronics re-commerce business.

NEW YORK -- Target continues to pull ahead of Walmart in the value retail category, according to a recent Harris poll. The company was named the 2011 Harris Poll Equitrend value retail brand of the year. This is the second consecutive year Target has led the way in the value retail category.

Target lead the way with a ranking of 74.1, while Walmart had a ranking of 70.8. The industry average in the value retail category was 67.3.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Target announced that it will offer an exclusive version of Alison Krauss & Union Station's "Paper Airplane," Krauss’ 14th album and the band’s follow-up to 2004’s Grammy-award-winning album "Lonely Runs Both Ways." The deluxe edition of Paper Airplane is now available for pre-order at Target.com and will be offered at Target retail stores nationwide beginning April 12.

The complexities of running a retail business combined with low margins prevalent in the mass market leave little room for error when it comes to achieving operating profitability. For any retailer to produce a profit is quite an accomplishment, and in the case of Walmart it is even more impressive when factoring in some of the extracurricular activities that go on in its stores.

A new Harris Poll EquiTrend study out this week shows Target, not Walmart, as the Value Retail Brand of the Year. That would be bad enough news for Walmart given the company’s prospects in the United States are closely tied to its reputation for low prices, but this is the second year in a row Target has been named the top Value Retail Brand and the gap with Walmart even widened this year.

San Francisco -- Gap has entered into a new $500 million revolving credit facility with a syndicate of banks led by BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan and Citigroup Global Markets. The new financing matures in 2016 and replaces the company’s existing $500 million revolving credit facility. As part of the same financing agreement, the company also entered into a $400 million five-year term loan.

San Diego -- Warehouse club operator PriceSmart reported Thursday that net income for the quarter ended Feb. 28 rose 31% to $17.9 million, compared with $13.7 million in the year-ago period.

Revenue rose 23% to $449.6 million from $366.1 million, mainly on higher warehouse club sales. Wall Street expected revenue of $386.1 million.

Same-store sales rose 16.7% in March.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Thursday by the National Retail Federation and conducted by BIGresearch found that spending on food, gifts and apparel is expected to increase this Easter.

According to NRF’s 2011 Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, the average consumer is expected to spend $131.04 on everything from candy to clothes -- up from last year’s $118.60, but still not quite meeting pre-recession spending levels.

Total spending on Easter-related merchandise is expected to reach $14.6 billion.

Grapevine, Texas -- GameStop Corp. has selected Adgregate Markets, a leader in secure social commerce solutions, to provide social shopping on its Facebook page through Adgregate’s proprietary ShopFans solution.

GameStop is the first multichannel gaming company to launch a storefront on Facebook and provide true social commerce to more than 1.8 million Facebook fans.

New York City -- Brooks Bros. said Thursday that it has implemented a mobile optimized website to create a unique mobile shopping experience for its customers, powered by Digby’s Mobile Software Commerce Platform.

With the new mobile presence, customers can now search, review and buy products from Brooks Bros. directly from their mobile devices.