Retail Stores

Staples will shut about 140 locations this year, part of a store-closing plan announced earlier, as the world's largest office-supply chain responds to online competition. Staples shut 80 outlets in North America in the fiscal second quarter. Net income in the three months ended Aug. 2 dropped 20 percent to $82 million, as $101 million was spent on closing locations, the Framingham, Mass.-based company said in a statement today. Expansion by web-based rivals such as Amazon.com has spurred reorganizations across the retail industry, including the merger of stationery suppliers Office Depot with OfficeMax. 

Target is keeping its doors open later at more than half of its U.S. stores, hoping to snag guests who are putting off shopping until well after dark and might have gone elsewhere. The chain's nearly 1,800 U.S. stores had typically opened at 8 a.m. and closed at 10 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays and at 9 p.m. on Sundays. The new hours will keep stores open until 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. on Sundays and until 11 p.m. or midnight on other days. The hours will vary by store; some, for example, will only have extended hours on weekends. 

A day after announcing a disappointing second quarter, Wal-Mart has made an aggressive holiday promise to its customers: the world's largest retailer says it will staff every cash register from the day after Thanksgiving through the days just before Christmas during peak shopping times. Wal-Mart's "checkout promise" is aimed at addressing lengthy waits in checkout lines. "We feel good about price and having the top gifts of the season, so the next priority is about getting customers in and out of the stores quickly," Duncan Mac Naughton, Wal-Mart's chief merchandising officer, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Wal-Mart thought shoppers would like the opportunity to use a smartphone app to scan items they want to buy as they walk through store aisles. In theory, they could speed through self-checkout. But customers couldn't figure out how to work the Scan & Go app, so Wal-Mart nixed it. Instead of looking at the app as a failure, though, Wal-Mart took what it learned from Scan & Go to create another service: it found that customers like being able to track their spending, an insight that became the impetus for a national program that enables shoppers to store electronic receipts.

Wet Seal said it will celebrate the opening of 31 Wet Seal Plus stores across the country on Aug. 16. The Foothill Ranch, Calif.-based apparel company discontinued its Arden B brand and converted its 31 Arden B stores into Wet Seal Plus stores. The brand's other 23 locations were transitioned into regular Wet Seals. The change, in the works since April, has helped Wet Seal "expand in the growing junior plus market," said the company's Chief Executive John Goodman in a news release. 

Amazon.com unveiled a credit card reader and mobile app for brick-and-mortar businesses on Wednesday, marking the latest step by the U.S. online retailer to expand its presence in the physical world. The move pits Amazon against a slew of rivals, including startup Square, which popularized a payments dongle that allowed small and midsized businesses like food trucks, coffee shops and personal trainers to quickly accept credit and debit cards.

Retail sales climbed in July, led by Gap and L Brands, in what is typically a slow, clearance-driven month for retailers ahead of the back-to-school season. Costco Wholesale, however, underperformed, marking the first time in five months that the warehouse club chain's sales have increased less than expected. The company said foreign currencies had a

Brick-and-mortar stores are a fundamental component to an omnichannel retail brand's success. While big-box retailers are making moves to scale back their physical footprint, I don't think that means retailers should be rushing back to e-commerce-only models. Many "online only" retailers have moved offline to not only offer an extension of their online storefront, but also create a better customer experience.

America's supercenters are dying a slow death. Huge big-box stores like Wal-Mart Supercenters and Target are being phased out in favor of "some combination of value and convenience," Goldman Sachs recently wrote. "Just about every major trend we're following right now bodes poorly for power center retail," Doug Stephens, founder of

After experimenting with "shop in shops" at Henri Bendel in New York and The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas over the past nine months, online dress and accessories rental company Rent the Runway is now planning to open its first freestanding store. The 1,700-square-foot space will