Department Stores

Hoping to tap into consumers' new frugality, luxury department store chain Bloomingdale's plans to launch an outlet store concept this year. The decision, announced Thursday by parent company Macy's Inc., calls for four outlets to open this summer or fall, with more locations expected for 2011 and beyond. The first stores are scheduled to open in Paramus, N.J.; Miami; Sunrise, Fla.; and Woodbridge, Va. "We have been studying the opportunities for entering the off-the-mall outlet business for some time, and the timing now is right given the consumer's particular focus on value in addition to fashion and quality," Terry J. Lundgren, chief executive of Macy's Inc., said in a statement.

Owners of the Glendale Galleria have launched a massive makeover intended to update the regional shopping center in downtown Glendale. Improvements to the 1.5-million-square-foot center will include the previously announced addition of a Bloomingdale's department store in the space formerly occupied by Mervyns. The Bloomingdale's store is set to open next year. Other changes will be the most comprehensive since the mall opened in 1976 and "nothing short of dramatic," General Manager Larry Martin said.

As Christmas nears, many needy institutions seek the public's charity dollars. Please consider the local department stores. It shouldn't be hard to feel charitable. In many cases, it's the time of year they're most attractive--bustling with life, offering such rare services as salespeople and free gift wrap. In some cases, the need is particularly poignant: They may not be around next year. Their desperation shows. Some kicked off their Christmas season by Halloween this year.

J.C. Penney Co. is hoping that a turnaround strategy will someday make its most recent quarter, with its $87-million loss, just a bad memory. The Plano, Texas, company, armed with a new chief executive and retooled pricing, said Friday that its fiscal fourth-quarter slide was caused by long-ingrained bad habits — such as rolling discounts and outdated stores — as well as by efforts to improve on them. In the period ended Jan. 28, the $87-million loss, or 41 cents a share, was a plunge from a $271-million profit, or $1.13, in the same quarter a year earlier.

Gottschalks Inc. said it agreed to buy the assets of Harris Co., including nine Southern California department stores, for about $39.8 million plus the assumption of debt. Fresno-based Gottschalks agreed to give El Corte Ingles, Harris' Spanish parent, 2.1 million shares of Gottschalks stock, worth about $17.6 million, and a $22.2 million note due in 2003. The company would also assume an unspecified amount of debt. The transaction is expected to close by August.

With a remarkable consistency that's beginning to match the swallows' record at Capistrano, investors this spring are once again bidding up shares of the big department store stocks. It's happened for five straight years now. But if past is prologue, many of the stocks will turn into lumps of coal by the time the holiday shopping season arrives. That's because investors' expectations of continuing strong retail sales, and their ardor for the stocks, are typically dashed as the year rolls on.

Blasts from several bombs planted on motorbikes ripped through three department stores in Thailand's restive south, killing four people, including a 29-year-old Canadian, and wounding dozens, authorities said today. The attacks in the region's main commercial center of Hat Yai came just hours after the military staged a peace rally in the south, the site of a Muslim insurgency, where it expressed hope that people would work with authorities to end the violence.

David C. Farrell, president of the St. Louis-based parent of May Co. California, said sales so far in June have been better than May's 5.6% gain, but he does not expect the gain in second quarter sales and for the rest of the year to exceed the first quarter sales increase of 14% from a year earlier. However, May Department Stores' 1985 sales will surpass $5 billion and profits are expected to hit a new record, he told the company's annual meeting.

May Department Stores Co. has agreed to buy a 14-store chain founded by the Mormon church 132 years ago. The $52-million stock deal with ZCMI--formerly Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution--gives May a foothold in Utah and Idaho, two states where it had little presence. ZCMI will keep its name during a transitional period but eventually will change its name to Meier & Frank, a May property with eight stores in Oregon and Washington.

Perhaps clothing styles aren't changing much. But clothing stores are. "For one thing, they'll sell only clothes in department stores in the future," predicts Harry Bernard of Colton Bernard, a consulting firm for the fashion business. No more TVs, tape recorders and the like. Following a research effort his company completed for the sake of glimpsing the department stores of the future, Bernard also predicts that entertainment will play more of a part in shopping.

After a poor holiday season, J.C. Penney Co. is revamping its strategy by retooling its store format, marking down its merchandise and simplifying its promotions. "We are rethinking, we are reimagining, and if we find we have picked up some bad habits through the decades, we will leave them far behind," Chief Executive Ron Johnson told industry analysts Wednesday. The retailer will adopt a simple pricing model and do away with the hundreds of sales it has sprinkled throughout the year.

Department store giant Macy'sis going to court to block Martha Stewart Living's new deal with rivalJ.C. Penney. In a suit filed Monday in New York State Supreme Court, Macy's alleged that the deal, which will bring Martha Stewart products to Penney stores by early next year, violates a previous agreement handingMacy'sexclusive rights to sell certain branded products in its stores, Bloomberg reported. J.C. Penneyspent $38.5 million last December acquiring a 16.6% share of the company founded by lifestyle guru Martha Stewart.

Kohl's Corp. is opening its first-ever California design center in Santa Monica with an eye toward spotting West Coast trends while also expanding its New York design office. The 6,000-square-foot design studio, opening Monday, will house a team of 20 graphic designers who will focus on creating prints and embellishments for a variety of brands for the department store chain. "We will be on the ground gathering trend information, and we certainly respect L.A. as a major fashion hub," said Peggy Eskenasi, Kohl's senior executive vice president of product development.

Allen and Anita Kohl of the Kohl's department store family have sold their Santa Monica penthouse for $10.5 million. The condo takes up the top floor of the building and has 360-degree views. The high-rise, built in 1963 and remodeled in 2004, has 24-hour security, a fitness facility, gardens and fountains. The penthouse's features include a rooftop deck with a spa and barbecue, two direct access elevators, a library, an office, a media room, two master suites, balconies and floor-to-ceiling walls of glass.

Martha Stewart is headed for J.C. Penney. The company started by the lifestyle maven has made a 10-year deal with J.C. Penney Co. that will bring her products to the department store chain beginning in February 2013. Penney spent $38.5 million, or $3.50 a share, buying a 16.6% share in Stewart's Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., according to a news release put out by the two companies. Penney will also have a presence on Martha Stewart Living's board. The Stewart products will be showcased in distinct retail spaces in the stores, the companies said.

There was a time when Inglewood's Market Street hummed with activity — department stores, bustling movie houses and a steady stream of pedestrians. Now the department stores are largely gone, the movie theaters have closed and vendors fight for business on a street that's grown tired. But architect and artist Chris Mercier sees something far livelier — water from Centinela Springs flowing alongside the sidewalks, rooftops farms and aeronautic-looking windmills that would add an offbeat and colorful touch to the city's main artery.

Donald Dayton, former chairman of Dayton's department stores, has died of cancer at age 74. Dayton, the eldest of five brothers who made Dayton's into a retailing giant, underwent surgery for colon cancer last year and had been critically ill for the last six months, family members said. He died Thursday. Dayton Corp. merged in 1969 with J. L. Hudson Co., forming the Dayton-Hudson Corp., which now has 660 stores in 38 states and is the nation's fifth-largest retailer. The company owns the Target discount store chain, Mervyn's department stores and the Lechmere promotional discount store chain.

May Department Stores Co. said Wednesday that it will leave the discount store business with the sale of its Caldor chain to managers for $500 million and a spinoff of its Venture chain, allowing it to focus on department and specialty stores. The operator of 14 department store chains, including such stores as Hecht's, Lord & Taylor, Famous Barr and Filene's, is the largest publicly traded department store chain.

Going to the Westside Pavilion mall is a Friday afternoon ritual for Jenny Ouchi and her 8-year-old son, Will. But shopping isn't usually on the agenda. Ouchi drops Will off at Music Stars & Masters on the second floor, where he takes private piano lessons. During the half-hour session, Ouchi, 38, runs errands in the Los Angeles shopping center, such as getting her nails done or mailing a letter at the in-mall post office. "It's definitely a timesaver," said Ouchi, a part-time pediatrician who lives on the Westside.

Consumers responded to deep discounts and the final weeks of back-to-school shopping by spending heavily at the nation's retailers in September, reflecting a surprisingly upbeat shopping mindset heading into the holiday season. Despite an otherwise sluggish economic outlook, major chain stores posted a better-than-expected 5.1% year-over-year rise, according to Thomson Reuters' tally of 23 large retailers released Thursday. "The general disconnect between U.S. retailers … and broader weakness in the global economy continued in September," said Ken Perkins, president of research firm Retail Metrics Inc. Like many Americans, Simon Boyce-Maynard, 36, lost his job recently.