Retail Stores

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was slow to get into alcohol, but now it's fighting for the right to sell more of it. A prime target is Texas, where the world's largest retailer has sued the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, saying legal limits on sales of hard liquor are unconstitutional. One restriction prevents public companies — those with more than 35 shareholders — from selling spirits. The state beverage code also says no company can own more than five liquor stores unless permits for the others are bought from a blood relative.

Mike Ullman, the present CEO of J.C. Penney, will relinquish that post at the end of June 2015. He will stay on as non-executive chairman for a year. Marvin Ellison, president and chief executive-in waiting, will succeed Mr. Ullman in that position. While I haven't yet met with Ullman's successor, I have heard and read good things about him and sense that he motivates associates to do their best. He will certainly need that leadership skill. Ellison will have his hands full.

Frederick's of Hollywood Group Inc., a Los Angeles lingerie brand that struggled to compete with rival Victoria's Secret, has closed all of its stores and will do business only online. "We no longer have store locations," the retailer said on its website, but added that its online store offered the same selection of merchandise.

Off-price retailing owes a nod to the basement below Filene's, a Boston department store that figured out a way in the early 1900s to get rid of excess inventory at a discount in a stripped-down space below the fancy sales floors upstairs. In the first decade of the last century, few customers would have had cars to drive to an outlet mall in the middle of a corn field somewhere.

The March rebound in U.S. retail sales was less impressive than economists forecast, signaling consumers are in no rush to spend the windfall from cheaper fuel prices. Purchases increased 0.9 percent, the first gain in four months, according to Commerce Department figures issued Tuesday in Washington.

Pier 1 Imports Inc. suffered a big decline in profit in the fourth quarter and announced that it plans to close 100 stores as part of a three-year plan to "reduce occupancy costs." Pier 1 reported net income of $33.1 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, down 22 percent from $42.6 million the same quarter a year earlier.  Expenses related to the retirement of the company's former CFO, as well as increased selling, general and

A new era for RadioShack is upon us — the Sprint-RadioShack era. Sprint on Friday will open up shop in 1,435 RadioShack stores acquired as part of the electronic retailer's recent bankruptcy action, more than

Walgreens Boots Alliance said Thursday it will close about 200 less-profitable U.S. Walgreens stores and open the same number of stores in new locations. A spokesman told the Chicago Tribune on Thursday that the stores will close during the next three years, with the last closing no later than the end of 2017. The list of stores slated to close is still being finalized. The closings, announced along with quarterly earnings on Thursday, will expand a three-year, $1 billion cost-reduction plan announced last August. The company now plans to cut $1.5 billion by the end of 2017.

This Friday, Apple will debut its much-hyped Apple Watch, allowing prospective buyers a chance to try on a variety of sizes, straps and settings and place a pre-order before the gadget officially hits the market on April 24. Apple's head of retail Angela Ahrendts has been working alongside design chief Jony Ive to remodel the tech giant's retail stores so they look like the sort of place one might happily part with tens of thousands of dollars on a rose-gold-encased wearable.

Discount retailer Dollar Tree said Tuesday it expects to be able to complete its purchase of competitor Family Dollar in May, and said it will have to sell about 340 Family Dollar locations to close the deal. Dollar Tree said the Federal Trade Commission is almost finished reviewing the $8.5 billion acquisition and has identified 340 stores that it wants the company to sell in order to preserve competition for consumers. Dollar Tree said all or almost all of those stores will be Family Dollar locations.