Retail Stores

This year stirred up the pot of new store closings, not because the retail industry as a whole is in crisis, but because some retailers have found it difficult (or nearly impossible) to keep up in the fast-moving, competitive retailing environment.  Following the growth of e-commerce and mobile shopping, retailers have been forced to downsize brick-and-mortar locations in an attempt to "be where the customers are." Driving traffic to the web and mobile, consumers have cast their vote for which store experiences have value and which ones can be easily replaced. 

The teen retail sector is one of the most talked about categories among retail and fashion execs. Not a surprise when teens (often funded by their parents) spend an estimated $200 billion to $300 billion annually, with 40 percent of that going for fashion. Teens make up a large component of the 80 million-strong millennial demographic, which is expected to outspend baby boomers within the next five years. Ironically, this rich vein of consumer buying power is one of the toughest markets to crack successfully.  

Appliance, electronics and furniture retailer h.h. gregg is getting a makeover. The brand transformation will encompass all customer touchpoints, including its 228 store locations and online presence. The first phase of h.h. gregg's brand transformation launches this week. "Our brand transformation is the foundation for our differentiation from other retailers," said Dennis May, president and CEO of h.h. gregg. "By eliminating pain points that most often frustrate customers buying large appliances, electronics, furniture and similar items from big-box and DIY retailers, we can help bring the joy back to making these purchases and create lifelong customers."

During the Super Bowl, RadioShack aired an ad that kicked off the retailer's new "Do It Together" marketing campaign. Two zoned-out red shirts stand in an old outlet-mall RadioShack store. The doors bust open. Enter Hulk Hogan, Cliff from "Cheers," Mary Lou Retton, Alf, Sargeant Slaughter and others. They scour the premises for their favorite stuff and carry everything out the door, leaving the red shirts standing alone. The tagline? "The '80s called. They want their store back." Cool ad, but it missed the point. It's the RadioShack of the 2000s, and even the 2010s, that people hate.

Office Depot said it would close at least 400 stores in the United States as shoppers shift their office supply purchases to online retailers, mass-market chains and drugstores. The company operated about 2,200 stores as of December, employing 66,000 associates and bringing in about $17 billion in revenue. By the end of March, the company said it had 1,900 U.S. stores. Office Depot, which also reported a quarterly net loss, said it expects to close 150 stores this year. The store closures will start adding to profit in 2015, the company said.

Best Buy will remodel the TV sections in most of its stores nationwide to add dedicated areas for Samsung and Sony. Best Buy said Thursday that it plans a massive expansion of its "store-within-a-store" concept, with Sony opening stores in 350 Best Buy locations and Samsung adding 500 new stores to its presence within Best Buy. Best Buy has been aggressively trying to remake the way it sells products, carving out space for individual brands in its big boxes in efforts to once again become a go-to destination for consumer electronics. 

Last year, Groupon's CEO Eric Lefkovsky said that his ambition was to make the e-commerce company's Goods business more like Costco, not Amazon.com. Yesterday, the company announced it's launching a new business called Groupon Basics — offering discounts on home goods to compete with warehouse-based bulk-buying clubs — that will bring it one step closer to that idea. As an expansion of the online e-commerce portal Groupon Goods, Groupon Basics is a discounted, bulk-shopping service for home goods. Starting with household, personal care and health products, the plan is to expand to canned and packaged groceries in the next few months.

Aeropostale will cut jobs and close stores as part of the clothing retailer's efforts to turn its business around. The company said Wednesday that it will close 125 of its mall-based P.S. from Aeropostale stores by the end of its current fiscal year, citing changing consumer habits, particularly among "mom" shoppers, as its rationale. It plans to remove the kids' clothing stores from malls and focus on faster-growing venues for growth, such as online sales, outlet stores and licensing deals. In addition to the job cuts associated with the closures, Aeropostale plans to eliminate about 100 corporate jobs as well.

A 132-year-old Toronto institution is closing its last retail stores. OfficeMax Grand & Toy announced last week that all of its remaining 19 brick-and-mortar outlets across the country will shut down. The historic office supplies chain, an affiliate of global office products provider Office Depot Inc., said it will continue to do business online and through its customer service centers. "We are concentrating our efforts on ways to better serve our customers in response to their changing business needs," Simon Finch, general manager, OfficeMax Grand & Toy, said in a release.

Rent-A-Center Inc. reported a 37 percent decline in first-quarter profit and said it will close 150 U.S. stores. The company reported a first-quarter profit of 54 cents a share, or $28.9 million, compared with profits of 79 cents a share, or $46.1 million, a year ago. Customer accounts from the closed stores will be consolidated to other nearby locations. The last time Rent-A-Center closed a large batch of stores was at the end of 2007, when it closed 280 stores, a spokesman for the company said.