Retail

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business­­­­­ The traditional idea of where we get the feeling of home has been disrupted, according to a global research project by IKEA Group. The fifth edition of the Life at Home Report — an annual study into domestic living trends around the world — found that 29% of people globally say there are places where ...

Bloomberg The all-important holiday season is fast approaching, and there’s very little JC Penney Co.’s incoming chief executive officer can do about it. The struggling department-store chain named its new CEO, retail veteran Jill Soltau, with less than three months of 2018 holiday shopping to go. JC Penney’s orders for the critical period were placed months ago, giving her little ...

Bloomberg Watch out dollar stores, Target Corp. wants to steal your shoppers. The Minneapolis-based retailer is introducing Smartly, a line of essentials and personal-care products mainly priced under $2, for budget-conscious consumers who don’t want to buy in bulk. It’s in step with Target’s strategy to offer new brands to get customers excited. It has added a dozen over the ...

Bloomberg Jeff Bezos scored a public-relations victory by giving his workers a raise, even drawing praise from Amazon.com Inc. scold Bernie Sanders. But at its root, the $15-an-hour minimum pay is an incentive for people to come work for Amazon — rather than Walmart or Target — as the retail industry gears up for the holiday shopping season amid historically ...

Dubai / Emirates Business­­­­­ Following the launch of new smartphones from leading brands, Jumbo Electronics, the leading omnichannel retailer in the region, is forecasting that smartphones will drive sales at this year’s edition of Gitex Shopper, scheduled to be held till October 6 at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC). During the five-day event, the new iPhone XS/XS Max, Samsung Note ...

Bloomberg JC Penney Co named Jill Soltau as its first female chief executive officer, bringing her 30 years of retail experience to the embattled department-store chain. Soltau, who has served as CEO of Joann Stores since 2015, will step into the role on October 15, JC Penney said in a statement. Shares of the retailer surged as much as 12 ...

Bloomberg Target Corp. is the first brick-and-mortar retailer to carry the Quip toothbrush, as the retailer adds yet another startup brand hatched on the web. The cheap-chic merchant now offers Quip’s electric brushes in all its stores and online, and will include the product in its holiday gift guides. The $40 battery-powered metal toothbrush comes in four colors, and customers ...

Bloomberg The same Toys “R” Us Inc. lenders that have been taking heat for their role in the decision to liquidate the company in March are now working on bringing the brand back to life, according to new court documents. In a bankruptcy court filing, the funds that now control Toys “R” Us said they’d canceled a plan to auction ...

Bloomberg For traders betting on the death of America’s malls, being right and making money are proving to be two very different things. Reminiscent of Michael Burry of “The Big Short” fame, these hedge funds have piled into a trade that could reap huge profits if loans taken out by beleaguered mall and shopping-center operators eventually go bust. While the ...

Bloomberg Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA agreed to sell the real estate underlying 55 of its Monoprix stores for $655 million, giving the French retailer a much-needed infusion of cash as short sellers circle the company and its main shareholder. The agreement, along with another transaction announced in July, gets Casino halfway to its goal of selling 1.5 billion euros of assets ...