Retail

Bloomberg Italy’s shoppers may be digging out their wallets as retail businesses reopen on Monday, but many of the country’s 2.7 million merchants say there’s little to celebrate. “My creditors will be all over me as soon as I raise my portcullis,” said Giulio Anticoli, referring to the heavy medieval grates still used to protect some storefronts in Rome. “There’s ...

Bloomberg For middle-class Americans in the 20th century, JC Penney was one of the first places to look when you needed work pants, toys or towels, chairs or china. Even if you didn’t live anywhere near one of its stores, the iconic mail-order catalog made its goods available to anyone. As Penney’s longtime slogan promised, “It’s All Inside.” But as ...

Bloomberg Nike Inc has been among the chief beneficiaries of a “significant acceleration in athletic apparel/footwear trends” over the past couple of weeks as stores in several states began reopening after the Covid-19 pandemic closed all but essential businesses across the country, according to Credit Suisse Securities analyst Michael Binetti. “Athletic trends looked very bad” at the start of the ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc says the one- and two-day delivery times that shoppers have come to expect should gradually return in coming weeks as the online retailer catches up from a demand surge tied to the coronavirus outbreak. The company lifted restrictions on the amount of inventory its suppliers can send to Amazon warehouses and is shortening delivery times — which ...

Bloomberg Stage Stores Inc, the owner of rural department and discount stores including Goody’s, Peebles and Gordmans, filed for bankruptcy protection, adding to the toll of traditional retailers felled by too much debt and the economic shocks of the coronavirus. The retailer will simultaneously seek buyers for parts or all of its business while it also begins to wind down ...

Bloomberg Sephora USA Inc escalated its legal fight with partner JC Penney Co, saying the department-store chain’s response to the pandemic violates an agreement allowing it to operate about 650 in-house beauty boutiques. JC Penney, which closed all its stores in March as the virus spread, persuaded a Texas state court judge last week to temporarily bar Sephora from exiting ...

Bloomberg Ocado Group Plc’s retail revenue rose more than 40% in the second quarter as the UK online grocer’s sales were boosted by home shopping during the Covid-19 lockdown. The company suspended financial guidance for the year, saying uncertainty around the pandemic made it impossible to predict near-term sales trends. The second-quarter’s gain was up from a 10% increase in ...

Bloomberg Neiman Marcus Group Inc is closing in on a deal with lenders led by Pacific Investment Management Co that would slash the department-store chain’s debt load by more than half in exchange for control of the company, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The plan would be part of a bankruptcy court filing that could come as ...

Bloomberg Blue Bell Creameries Inc, a Texas-based ice cream maker, agreed to plead guilty and pay $19.35 million in fines for shipping frozen treats tainted with listeria in 2015 and deliberately failing to disclose the contamination to the public, the US Department of Justice said. The company’s former president, Paul Kruse, was charged with seven felony counts related to the ...

Bloomberg High-end cookware chain Sur La Table Inc is preparing for a potential bankruptcy filing after the pandemic forced it to close stores and cancel cooking classes, according to people familiar with the matter. The chain, with about 125 stores, is also pursuing a sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process isn’t public. For ...