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NEW YORK, Feb 27, 2024 (AFP) – The iconic but struggling US department store Macy’s announced plans on Tuesday to close almost a third of its eponymous locations by 2026 while building up its upscale Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury brands. In a new strategy dubbed a “Bold New Chapter” aimed at breathing new life into the 166-year-old retailer, the company said it would shut 150 “underproductive” Macy’s locations. It will close 50 of them by the […]
PARIS, Dec 19, 2023 (AFP) – French sports retail giant Decathlon has secretly continued selling clothes in Russia despite officially pulling out in protest at Russia’s war in Ukraine, a media report published Tuesday said. The multinational retailer, which posted sales of 15.4 billion euros ($16.9 billion) last year, announced within weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that it would withdraw from the Russian market. In October of this year, it sold its 60 […]
WASHINGTON, Dec 11, 2023 (AFP) – A group of investors have offered to buy US department store giant Macy’s for $5.8 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Arkhouse Management, a firm specializing in real estate investments, and asset manager Brigade Capital Management submitted a proposal to acquire the company’s remaining stock for $21 per share, the financial daily reported, citing “people familiar with the matter.” Macy’s shares were trading for $17.39 per share as […]
BEIJING, Nov 11, 2023 (AFP) – China’s annual “Singles Day” sales bonanza wraps up at midnight on Saturday, but consumers this year appear largely unswayed by its flashy deals and discounts as the world’s second-largest economy slows. Conceived by tech giant Alibaba, “Singles Day” — which this year spanned well over a week — was launched in 2009 and has since ballooned into a yearly blockbuster retail period. Sales for last year’s Singles Day reached […]
PARIS, May 5, 2023 (AFP) – Chinese cut-price fast-fashion giant Shein defended its business model in an interview with AFP, saying demand-based production accounted for its low prices and not forced or cheap labour. Founded in China in 2008, Shein has swiftly claimed a top place in the global fast-fashion marketplace, offering young social-media-savvy customers low-priced collections that turn over at a steady clip. The Singapore-based firm’s strategy chief Peter Pernot-Day told AFP that Shein […]
London, United Kingdom (AFP) Shares in UK clothing retailer Next soared to the top of the London market Thursday after it said colder weather boosted purchases despite a cost-of-living crisis caused by sky-high inflation. Next’s share price jumped seven percent to £65.26 ($78.53) on the benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was up modestly overall. Sales of full-price items rose around five percent in the nine weeks to December 30 from a year earlier, the company […]
London, United Kingdom | AFP | UK fashion retailer Joules on Monday announced it was on the brink of collapse, as decades-high inflation hits business costs and consumer spending. Joules, famous for its posh wellies, intends on appointing administrators to try to salvage some of the business, having failed to secure an emergency injection of cash, a statement said. It added that trading of its shares had been suspended. Joules employs around 1,600 staff, while […]
Stockholm, Sweden | AFP | Swedish furniture giant Ikea posted a six percent rise in full-year sales on Thursday, in what it described as a “challenging” year due to inflation and scaling back in Russia. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ikea closed its 17 shops and halted production in the country, where it was one of the largest Western employers before the war with 15,000 employees. According to Dutch holding company Inter Ikea’s CEO […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — America’s largest mall went into lockdown Thursday over what police described as an “active incident,” with reports of shots being fired, sparking scenes of chaos inside the giant complex in midwestern Minnesota. Footage shared on social media — which could not be immediately authenticated — showed panicked shoppers running through the sprawling mall in Bloomington, which has more than 500 stores. “Mall of America is currently under lockdown,” the mall […]
by Glenn Chapman Agence France-Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Amazon and Apple were a relative bright spot in a week of otherwise lackluster earnings results for an industry reckoning with the end of heady pandemic-era growth. A crowded period of quarterly financial releases from the world’s biggest tech firms has been marred by misses and uncertainty — making it clear that the boom triggered by Covid-19 restrictions on getting about has tipped toward […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Lower sales in North America and China dented Nike’s quarterly results as the sports giant on Monday projected modest revenue growth amid the strong dollar, rising inflation and other headwinds. The Oregon company — which has enjoyed strong pricing at times during the pandemic but also faced Covid-19 factory lockdowns in Asia that have crimped its inventories — reported lower profits for its fiscal fourth quarter. For the quarter […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s factory output and retail sales remained weak in May, official data showed Wednesday, with tepid demand and lingering Covid restrictions putting a damper on growth in the world’s second-largest economy. The government is persisting with a zero-Covid strategy to stamp out clusters as they emerge, but this has placed companies and consumers at the mercy of snap, economically damaging lockdowns. Retail sales sank 6.7 percent on-year in May, the National […]
