Retail Stores

Target opened a one-day-only pop-up store in Toronto yesterday for its limited edition collection by designer Jason Wu. The store featured an assortment of Jason Wu products, including a Target-branded tote bag created exclusively for the pop-up shop.

Antiques marketplace Ruby Lane has decided to shelve its gift card program, which soft launched earlier this month. The gift cards could be used for purchases in any Ruby Lane shop and were designed to increase sales throughout the site.

OfficeMax reported that net income for the quarter ended Dec. 31 dropped to $2.9 million from $32.8 million a year earlier. Sales edged up 3.9 percent to $1.8 billion in the quarter, but dipped 0.4 percent to $7.1 billion for the full year. 

Nordstrom recently announced adjustments to its loyalty program; Barnes & Noble unveiled temporary price cuts to its Nook tablets and e-readers; and Safeway, Kroger and Stop & Shop are hoping to offset rising food prices by providing gasoline discounts to their rewards members and personalized savings for loyal shoppers.

Columbia Sportswear has implemented a new payment data solution. This cloud-based solution protects sensitive point-of-sale payment data and reduces Columbia's PCI scope by reducing the retailer's requirement of storing any payment data on its network. The implementation across Columbia Sportswear's 54 U.S. retail locations will be completed by April 2012. 

Sears is looking toward its substantial real estate portfolio to offset its weak financial performance. The operator of Kmart, Sears and Lands' End said it will spin off some stores and sell others as it seeks to regain profitability and market share.

Gap reported that net income for the fourth quarter plummeted 40 percent on higher costs and aggressive discounting during the holiday selling season. Net income for the quarter ended Jan. 28 was $218 million, compared with $365 million a year earlier.

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld caused a storm earlier this month by branding singer Adele "a little too fat," but it appears that retailers are now embracing consumers with fuller figures. One of the U.K.'s largest shop mannequin companies has reported a surge in orders for clothes dummies sized 12 and above.

Helped by Mother Nature, Home Depot easily beat estimates with a 32 percent leap in fourth quarter profits amid healthy sales of $16 billion. Inspired by the encouraging results, shares of the world's largest home improvement retailer jumped more than 3 percent in premarket action.

In the high-tech era of Groupon and mobile apps, Canada's oldest loyalty program is a relic of the past. But even as Canadian Tire tries to reinvent its paper currency rewards, the retailer hangs on to its "funny money" — defying every rule in the modern loyalty program playbook.