Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.
Omega, the timekeeper for Olympians and astronauts, is opening its first Chicago boutique on North Michigan Avenue, sources said.
The store is slated to open in November at 909 N. Michigan Ave. in the space occupied by Italian shoe boutique Fratelli Rossetti, which recently closed. Get the full story »
Habit, the nationally recognized Chicago boutique dedicated to championing emerging Chicago designers, is closing its doors on Saturday after five years.
Habit owner Lindsey Boland sent an email notice to customers Wednesday announcing that she was shutting down the shop.
Boland, a clothing designer who trained with Cynthia Rowley in New York, opened the store at 1951 W. Division St. in September 2005 with high hopes of turning the spotlight on local talent. Her mission was to carry independent, high-crafted designs created in small quantities, making sure to stock half the store with inventory from Chicago-based companies.
Habit joins a growing number of high-profile, independent Chicago boutiques that have closed this year in the wake of the recession as well-heeled shoppers cut back on spending. Get the full story »
Amazon.com launched a cheaper, wireless-only Kindle Wednesday, betting that the $139 price will turn its latest electronic reader into a mass-appeal device as Apple Inc’s iPad gains ground.
The world’s largest online retailer and leading e-reader seller also revealed its third generation Kindle, some 21 percent smaller and 15 percent lighter than the previous version, but still priced at $189.
Amazon does not give sales figures for the Kindle, but said last week that its growth rate tripled after it cut its price on the device from $259 and said e-books were outselling hardcover books. Apple has said it sold more than 3 million iPads, starting at $499, since the product was introduced in April. Get the full story »
Theo Albrecht, a reclusive billionaire who made his fortune building up one of Germany’s largest retail empires, has died at the age of 88.
Albrecht, an irrepressibly thrifty man who co-founded the Aldi discount market chain, was ranked by Forbes as Germany’s second-richest person — and ninth worldwide — with a fortune of almost 19 billion euros ($24 billion). Get the full story »
CVS Caremark Corp. Wednesday reported weaker quarterly earnings and lowered its profit forecast, but shares rose as investors approved of a large pharmacy benefit management services contract struck with Aetna.
CVS Caremark will administer Aetna’s retail pharmacy store network and manage customer service. It will also handle prescription drug purchasing, manage inventories and fill prescriptions for Aetna’s mail-order and specialty pharmacy operations. The contract will ramp up over several years and bring in revenue of $8.2 billion next year. CEO Tom Ryan said the 12-year contract is the largest and longest contract in the industry. Get the full story »
Another Wal-Mart is on its way to Chicago, with the City Council today approving a store for the South Side’s Chatham neighborhood. Aldermen voted 41-4 without discussion to approve the store at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue. That comes on the heels of the council’s unanimous vote last month to allow a Wal-Mart to be built in the far Southeast Side Pullman neighborhood. Prior to that, no Wal-Marts had opened in the city since 2006.
Supervalu Inc. posted weaker-than expected quarterly sales Tuesday but said it remains on track for its full-year earnings goals, as it controls margins and costs.
The company, whose shares rose 2 percent, said separately that Chief Financial Officer Pamela Knous, 56, will leave July 30 “to pursue other career interests.” It expects to fill the position by the time it reports second-quarter results in October. Get the full story »
New Bratz dolls (AP)
New Bratz dolls are heading to toy stores after a federal court overturned a ruling that their maker, MGA Entertainment, had to turn over the brand to Mattel Inc.
Two new lines of the doe-eyed dolls should hit stores such as Toys R Us, Target and Walmart by the end of August. Get the full story »
From Crain’s Chicago Business | Manhattan’s City Winery is looking at space in the former Carson Pirie Scott building on State Street.
Sears Holdings Corp. said it signed a long-term lease with fast-fashion apparel chain Forever 21 to occupy about 43,000 square feet of a Sears department store in an upscale mall, located in Costa Mesa, Calif.
The deal, the first of its kind, for Hoffman Estates-based Sears, gives the struggling retailer a template to make more productive use of its mall stores, many of which anchor premium shopping centers but lag the retail industry in sales per square foot. Get the full story »
Wal-Mart cleared another hurdle Friday in its bid to open stores throughout Chicago, winning approval from the City Council Finance Committee to build a location in the South Side’s Chatham neighborhood. If the plan for a store at the intersection of 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue passes the full City Council Wednesday, it will mark the second Wal-Mart given the green light to open within city limits in less than a month, after six years that saw none approved.
Three discount clothing stores are coming to Cook County, with the first one planned for a July 30th opening.
New Jersey-based Forman Mills Clothing Factory Warehouse will open in the Landings Shopping Center on 16855 Torrence Avenue, Lansing. A second store is scheduled to open within the next two months in the city’s North Austin neighborhood. The company is still negotiating the location of the third store, and says the three stores will create a total of 600 jobs.
Approval for Chicago’s third Wal-Mart will follow hard on the heels of the second if Mayor Richard Daley has his way.
Daley held a news conference today to call on the City Council Finance Committee to approve a long-discussed Wal-Mart store at the corner of 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood.
The proposal is on the committee’s Friday agenda. Get the full story »
The Seattle-based chain, which has just completed a restructuring, raised its fiscal 2010 earnings target to $1.22 to $1.23 per share, from $1.19 to $1.22 per share previously. Analysts on average were looking for a profit of $1.23 for the fiscal year ending September 2010. Get the full story »
