Retail Stores

CVS has been receiving some negative press and social media commentary over the length of its paper receipts. Take this posting from the Facebook page "One Million Strong Against Unnecessarily Long CVS Receipts" as an example: "My last CVS receipt for $3.34 was 25.5 inches long. And that's too (expletive) long. I don't care that they use my CVS card to track me across the planet, I just want a receipt that isn't 1/3rd my height."

Two of the hottest trends in retail — the rise of value shopping and the use of ambient scent to create a more pleasant atmosphere for customers — are coming together at over 40 stores in southeastern Wisconsin and metropolitan Chicago. But the retailer now rolling out Prolitec, Inc.'s ambient-scenting technologies is neither a fashion tenant at the mall nor a big-box warehouse out on the strip — it's a 92-year-old, nonprofit organization, Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin, Inc.

Total retail sales in July sustained momentum despite inconsistencies in other areas of the economy. According to MasterCard SpendingPulse, which tracks national retail and service sales, excluding auto sales, retail sales in July grew 8.7 percent year-over-year. Retail sales are on par with the average growth of the previous three months.

2-D barcodes attract market interest and media hype, but after more than 40 years of use conventional 1-D linear barcodes are still useful, ubiquitous and important in mobile barcode scanning applications, especially in the late third quarter and fourth quarter of the year.

Major retailers, including Nordstrom and Gap, have begun offering electronic versions of receipts, either emailed or uploaded to password-protected websites. The retailers report more customers are opting for paperless.

Two Athleta stores will open this week in Manhattan. The openings mark the women’s active wear brand’s entry into the East Coast market and support Athleta’s plan to open up to 50 stores by 2013.

British retailers held an emergency meeting with Theresa May, the Home Secretary, to express their sense of helplessness and anger that they've received little support during the violent riots that erupted across London and parts of Britain.

Sports Authority said it will open six new stores on Aug. 13. The new stores will open in five states, and include the major markets of Miami, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Chicago and Milwaukee.

American Apparel finally had a quarter where the company's financial results weren't a total disaster. Same-store sales, a key measure of retail health, didn't plummet. But they didn't rise either. This is the first time that's happened since the month of January, 2009. 

Best Buy has announced the expansion of its self-service kiosks, with nearly 100 locations to be added in the next year. Best Buy Express has opened in 150 locations over the past three years and will be adding two locations at the Downtown Disney District in Anaheim, Calif., multiple locations at college campuses and also at events and ferry hubs.