Sears Holdings Announces Store Sales

Sears Holdings Corporation announced domestic comparable store sales for its Kmart and Sears stores.  Kmart's quarter-to-date comparable store sales continued to benefit from their layaway program as well as from increases in the toys, home, sporting goods, apparel and footwear categories.  Sears Domestic's sales decline occurred in consumer electronics with appliances and tools also experiencing declines. In contrast, Sears footwear, jewelry, and automotive categories generated comparable store sales growth during the quarter-to-date period.

PR Newswire

RadioShack to Add Hundreds of Target Mobile Kiosks

RadioShack Corp. plans to almost double its presence in Target stores, where it operates wireless departments for the Minneapolis retailer.  Fort Worth, Texas-based RadioShack ran mobile departments in 850 Targets at the end of 2010. It plans to increase that figure to approximately 1,450 Target stores by June 30.  The expansion comes at the same time as RadioShack plans to transfer similar wireless kiosks in 417 Sam's Club locations back to the members-only retail warehouse chain.

Sacramento Business Journal

Grocery Chain Pumps Up Gas Biz

Besides the new station at a Kroger supermarket in Middletown, Ohio, the nation's largest traditional grocery chain continues to expand its customer rewards tie-in with Shell Oil. In less than a year, the program has grown to nearly 5,000 Shell stations in 26 states. Kroger has nearly 2,500 stores in 31 states.

Bloomberg Business Week

Safeway Launches "Open Nature"

Safeway is rolling out the new natural foods Private Brand, Open Nature. The first 100% natural Open Nature products are in the fresh poultry category, and include fresh boneless/skinless chicken breasts and a line of 12 ounce packages of chicken sausage, in a variety of flavor combinations.  Open Nature as a brand fits in the fuzzy space between its O Organics brand and its Eating Right healthy food Private Brand. 

My Private Brand

TJX Launches Fierce Fight Against Retail Crime

Framingham discounter TJX Cos., which suffered a massive data security breach several years ago, is using company investigators to find people suspected of being involved in organized retail crime by following them to homes, pawn shops, and other locations, as well as by filming activity inside and outside stores.  Merchants across the country have been devoting more resources to tackling large-scale criminal activity, which results in annual losses of between $15 billion and $30 billion.

The Boston Globe

Office Depot Expands in Sweden

Office Depot, a leading global provider of office supplies and services, announced it is acquiring Svanstroms Gruppen, a Swedish office supply company.  The acquisition of Svanstroms Gruppen enables Office Depot to continue to grow its European business and positions the Company as one of the leading multi-channel office supply companies in Sweden.

Trading Markets

Sainsbury's Growth Accelerates in 3Q, but Value Lies Elsewhere

Sainsbury's third-quarter trading statement reflected accelerating sales growth despite the challenging consumer-spending environment.  Total sales for the third quarter grew 6.0%, driven by like-for-like sales of 3.6% and a 2.4% increase in new square footage. For the second consecutive quarter, nonfood revenue grew at more than 3 times the rate of grocery sales, and the online and convenience stores continued to grow.

Morning Star

Tesco Targets Vietnam in New Global Expansion

Tesco is looking to launch in Vietnam in a move that would extend the grocery giant's global empire to 15 countries.  Such a rollout would underline the world's third largest retailer's relentless push to grow its international business.  The company is understood to be looking to enter two new countries.  It flagged up the attractiveness of South-east Asia at a recent event, which it took to see its businesses in China and South Korea back in November.

The Independent

Woolworths reports $100m Net Profit

Woolworths New Zealand Group has reported a three-fold increase in net profit to just over $100 million in the year to June 27, 2010.  A subsidiary of the Australian-owned Woolworths supermarkets empire, the New Zealand operations had mild rises in both total revenue and cost of sales, which produced a slight improvement in gross profit to $1.15 billion, compared with $1.08b in the year to June 2009. 

Business Day