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Bedding retailer Mattress Firm announced it's agreed to buy all the remaining equity interests of Mattress Giant in a deal valued at approximately $47 million. Mattress Firm, which bought 55 Mattress Giant stores last year, said the latest deal involves about 180 stores in Florida and Texas, its two largest markets. It will give the retailer more than 900 stores. With the newly acquired stores and about 100 new stores expected to open, Mattress Firm projects it will end its current fiscal year on Jan. 29, 2013, with more than 1,000 stores and revenues of just over $1 billion. 

CNBC's Jane Wells talks with American Apparel's controversial CEO Dov Charney about his company's strong first-quarter earnings and whether a turnaround is officially in progress.

Paramus, N.J. -- Ikea said Tuesday it has officially plugged in the solar energy system installed at its location in Paramus, N.J. Ikea contracted with REC Solar for the development, design and installation of the customized solar power system. The 132,000-sq.-ft. PV array consists of a 1,063-kW system, built with 4,620 panels. It will produce approximately 1,359,100 kWh of clean electricity annually, the equivalent of reducing 1,033 tons of carbon dioxide, eliminating the emissions of 184 cars or powering 117 homes yearly. Ikea owns and operates each of its solar PV energy systems atop its buildings – as opposed

Staples has awarded five small businesses $50,000 in free advertising and cash as part of its “Give Your Small Business the Push It Needs” contest. Selected from hundreds of video entries submitted on Staples’ Facebook page, each of the five small businesses will receive a total of $50,000 in local cable television advertising and cash in their home market.

Fort Worth, Texas-based Pier 1 Imports will launch a three-year growth plan in fiscal 2013. The new plan will include store refurbishments, remodels, new openings and strategic relocations. In fiscal 2012, the company refurbished 125 stores and fully remodeled three stores. During fiscal 2013, the company plans to fully remodel approximately six to eight locations, refurbish approximately 100 existing stores and integrate new merchandise fixture elements into many of its stores.

On the heels of recent successes with the distribution of both proprietary and acquired content through its Genius Distribution Network (GDN), Genius Brands International today announced it's pursuing distribution opportunities from third-party content owners to fill its growing pipeline to retailers in multiple traditional and digital distribution channels. Genius Brands’ GDN is a vast distribution network established on the distribution of the company's flagship Baby Genius brand of products as well as its growing portfolio of other branded content. GDN consists of major retailers, traditional national distributors and global digital distributors.

Juicy Couture is headed to Russia.The brand will open its first two stores in Moscow on Tuesday in partnership with JamilCo., a leading Russian luxury brand distributor. The grand opening...

Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo will open its first store on the West Coast this fall in a 29,000-square-foot space in San Francisco, The Wall Street Journal reported. Uniqlo is also looking for locations in Los Angeles and other California cities, according to the report. To date, the company has opened three U.S. stores, all in New York City.

Being fair and being loyal aren't the same thing. But can one engender the other? The question hit me when reviewing J.C. Penney's annual report, which reveals its new pricing strategy, Fair and Square, could produce a fair number of zeros in the coming months — i.e., declining sales. As coupons, price cuts and other discounts have essentially trained consumers not to pay full price (and to wonder what the full price on anything really is), the retailer walked away from the madness. Fair and Square, it said: everyday low pricing, with just two sales a month on out-of-season wares.

Ikea, in partnership with American Forests, has planted 2 million trees across the United States through its Plant A Tree program. Ikea launched the national in-store Plant A Tree program in 1998 and since that time has raised $2 million through customer contributions and its own donations to plant the trees. During the month of April, Ikea Family "loyalty" card member usage will also support Ikea in its donations to plant more trees through American Forests.