Retail News
Sporting Goods Does Not Share in ‘Very Encouraging’ March Sales

While overall U.S. retail sales rose 0.8 percent unadjusted year-over-year in March, according to monthly data release by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce last week, sporting goods store sales were down 10.8 percent year-over-year and 0.3 percent from February on a seasonally adjusted basis. For the first quarter ended March 31, the sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument & book store segment had an 8.2 percent non-adjusted sales decline year-over-year to slightly more than $16.6 billion.

Elsewhere, a number of retailers made executive moves last week.

• Rack Room Shoes hired Brian Minnix as Chief Information Officer. Before joining the family footwear chain, his industry experience included stints with Belk and the former Brown Shoe Company (Caleres). He is succeeding the retiring Dale Patterson as Rack’s CIO. (photo)

• Decathlon’s new 47,000-sq.ft. store in Emeryville, CA will be cashless, operating on the NewStore Omnichannel platform via Apple iOS. Instead of cash wraps or registers, associates will place a customer’s physical shopping cart inside an RFID-enabled mobile checkout station and scan a QR code to create a shopping bag.

• J.C. Penney, still looking for a new chief merchant and chief customer service officer, hires Mike Robbins, most recently with Target, as chief officer of stores and supply chain, and former McKinsey & Co. executive is the Dallas company’s new chief transformation officer charged with developing and implementing strategic and transformational initiatives for the retailer.

• Roots, the Toronto-based outdoor lifestyle brand, has tapped Nancy Lepler, previously with numerous apparel brands including DKNY, GIII Apparel and Calvin Klein, as its new chief merchant, effective May 13.