Retail Stores

The pressure is on for apparel retailers, as two new competitors are planning their entry into the U.S. discount space. Swedish fast-fashion retailer H&M said on Thursday it will bring two of its secondary retail brands, & Other Stories and COS, to the U.S. this year. Last week, General Growth Properties CEO Sandeep Mathrani told CNBC the retailer was looking to bring these concepts to the U.S. The higher-priced COS brand will open two domestic locations, in

Jim Brett was haunted by mud-colored squares. When he started as West Elm's president in 2010, he couldn't believe how a furniture store could have so many products designed with such little imagination. "I was like, 'Oh, my God, what's with the brown boxes?'" he says. "The whole brand was brown boxes made in China. There wasn't a curve in the store!" From couches to beds to dressers, much of the line consisted of 

Video game retail chain GameStop launched a tech initiative on Tuesday aimed at creating better shopping experiences for consumers at its digital and brick-and-mortar stores. The company says the GameStop Technology Institute will combine research from the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University's Mays Business School and cloud technology from IBM to build more modern experiences for consumers. One potential experience spawned from the endeavor is a smartphone app consumers can launch when entering a store that tracks video game wishlists and notifies them of deals related to those items.

Despite excitement from the business world, consumers aren't keen on the latest innovations in retail advertising. A whole new category of technology has sprung up to serve "omnichannel" retailers, who combine online analytics with brick-and-mortar sales. They do that by connecting to a consumer's smartphone while they're in-store. And consumers are wary. According to a survey of 1,042 consumers conducted by consumer feedback company OpinionLab, 77 percent of respondents find in-store tracking unacceptable, and 81 percent said they don't trust retailers to keep data private and secure. Blame Target for that one.

Walgreens said it plans to close 76 unprofitable drugstores by August as part of a plan to save $40 million to $50 million per year beginning in its fiscal 2015. The drugstore chain, the nation's largest, declined to specify the locations of the stores slated to close aside from saying they're "spread across the country." Walgreens said it will confirm the closures in the coming months after it notifies employees. Most stores that will close either have had other Walgreens locations open in the same area or have seen real estate values decline since they've opened, the company said.

A banner for the hair salon that once occupied these quarters still hangs outside an abandoned West Broadway storefront in Manhattan. Inside, the 4,500-square-foot duplex space is utterly empty, with no hint of what — if anything — will fill it next. Two young, stylish women emerge from a car-service S.U.V. on a chilly Monday afternoon and open the locked door. They are Katia Beauchamp, 31, and Hayley Barna, 30, founders of the fast-growing online beauty subscription company Birchbox — and now, the latest in a string of successful internet entrepreneurs to try to open an actual store. 

As if the recent holiday season in the wake of the payroll tax increase and government shutdown hasn't already made 2014 a disappointment for retail, then the rest of the year may require a stiff upper lip in girding for the rest of the iceberg.

Sam's Club and Amazon.com deliver the best customer experience in the retail industry, according to the 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings, an annual ranking of companies based on a study of 10,000 U.S. consumers. Sam's Club and Amazon continue their reign as the highest-rated retailers for the third straight year, each earning an "excellent" rating. Sam's Club narrowly beat out Amazon for the top spot, receiving an 81 percent rating and an overall rank of eighth out of 268 companies across 19 industries. With ratings of 79 percent each, Costco, PetSmart, Ace Hardware and BJ's Wholesale Club also earned high marks.

Talk about deja vu. It's been only four months since shoppers dodged elbows and raced through the aisles to capture Black Friday's best deals, but the sales are making a comeback at Wal-Mart for spring as the big-box retailer looks to take a bite out of the growing home improvement sector. On Friday, Wal-Mart is slashing prices and debuting deeper offerings in its outdoor living and lawn and garden segments. The move puts pressure on home improvement leaders Home Depot and Lowe's, which consider the critical spring selling season their version of Christmas. 

H&M is still betting on buildings and hedging with web stores, not vice versa. The fast-fashion empire added 374 new brick-and-mortar locations in the past year, bringing its tally to almost 3,200, according to the company. That's more than one new H&M store opened each day, as the Swedish retailer likes to point out, and there's a similar number of ribbon cuttings on the schedule this year, including its first stores in Australia, India and the Philippines. The average store is getting bigger by the day, too, as H&M extends its product line.