News

ATLANTA - Hair accessories brand Goody is gearing up for spring with the launch of its new Modern Organica collection, exclusively available at Target next month.

This season, headbands comprised of shells and barrettes dressed in colorful knits will help beauty mavens get back on-trend while staying true to their roots. Mother of pearl embellishments provide a feminine feature, while earth stones and nature-inspired designs add a glamorous touch.

New York City -- Revionics said that it has been selected by Roundy’s Supermarkets as the retailer’s price optimization provider. The supermarket chain said it will leverage Revionics' analytic services, which will provide the retailer with insight into market patterns and consumer preferences to make better, fact-based decisions.

Atlanta -- RedPrairie Corp., a productivity solutions provider, announced that it has finalized the acquisition of SofTechnics, a leading provider of integrated retail enterprise solutions that has been serving customers for more than 20 years.     

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Fry, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Micros Systems, announced that Cabela’s has launched its newly designed website on Fry’s Open Commerce Platform.

New York City -- The real estate recovery is well under way, though not without some bumps, workout specialist Dennis P. Yeskey recently told a gathering of more 100 real estate professionals at the "Industry Spotlight: Finance -- Global Trends in the 2011 Real Estate Capital Markets" discussion sponsored by NYCREW, the New York area chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Women network.

The retail analysts at Standards & Poor Equity Research predict that 2011 will be a good year for retailers as consumer spending rises 3%, with sales boosted by the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts and the 2% payroll tax cut for all workers for one year.

Seattle -- Starbucks announced the launch of mobile payment in all U.S. company-operated stores, allowing customers to pay for in-store purchases with select smart phones. The company said test markets in Seattle, Northern California, New York and more than 1,000 Starbucks in domestic Target stores have successfully used the program.

Between announcing its first international acquisition and disclosing details of its U.S. expansion program, the Target board found time to squeeze in authorization of a quarterly dividend payment. The company’s dividend is currently 25 cents a share and is payable on March 10 to shareholders of record on Feb. 16. The first quarter dividend will be the company’s 174th consecutive dividend paid since October 1967 when the company became publicly held.

Talk about favorable media coverage. CNBC aired a one-hour special last week called “Target: Inside the Bullseye,” that served as more of a glowing endorsement of the company than the probing documentary implied by the title.

An announcement last week that Target plans to open 21 stores in the coming fiscal year was interesting on a number of levels.

For starters, the disclosure was rather uncharacteristic for a company that in years past would publicly release its stores openings a week or two in advance of the actual openings. In this case, the company shared its full list of openings for the entire year two weeks before its new fiscal year even begins.