Department Stores

Rotorex to lay off 51 workers at its Walkersville plantFifty-one of the 107 employees at the Rotorex Corp. plant in Walkersville will be laid off July 23, and it is unclear if or when they might be rehired.Federal law requires companies to notify the state government when more than 50 workers are laid off, so the state can help with unemployment benefits. The company also has notified Frederick and Walkersville governments.Rotorex, which once employed 440 people, has employed 107 people since August, when management and labor ended a yearlong lockout.

A strong economy and price-slashing on after-Christmas goods prompted heavy consumer spending at major chain stores in January, boosting sales well above expectations.In a month known for clearances, retail sales surged compared with January a year ago for discounters and specialty stores that performed well last year and for department store chains that have struggled against their lower-priced competitors.Wal-Mart Stores Inc. saw its biggest monthly gain since May, posting a 10.3 percent increase.

With its new department store at The Mall in Columbia mostly completed and scheduled to open in September, Nordstrom Inc. is continuing an aggressive push along the East Coast.The Seattle-based retailer, which distinguishes stores with espresso bars, cafes, live piano music and shoeshine stands, will open its fourth department store in Maryland on Sept. 17 -- the latest since becoming an anchor at an expanded Annapolis Mall in 1994.The retailer known for customer service and large size assortments expanded to the East Coast just over a decade ago and entered the Baltimore-Washington market in 1991, opening in Bethesda and at Towson Town Center in 1992.

ST. LOUIS -- May Department Stores Co., parent of Hecht's, Lord & Taylor and others, said yesterday that it plans to invest $3.6 billion over five years in its department stores.By 2002, May will add 100 new department stores to its existing base of 370 stores, remodel or expand 100 stores and invest $350 million in new technology to improve service, Chief Executive Gene Kahn said in a statement to the company's annual meeting.May Department Stores, which had $12.4 billion in sales for the year that ended January 1998, plans to invest $725 million this year to open 19 new stores and expand seven stores, adding 2.9 million square feet of retail space by the end of the year, the retailer said.

I was snapping up half-price Christmas ornaments as the word spread around the old Stewart's department store that it would be closing in a few weeks. It was the last days of 1978, and all I could think about was bagging enough blown-glass snowmen and ice castles to replace those that had smashed when that year's tree suffered an unfortunate Christmas night plunge.It fell the morning of Dec. 26 into a shattered mess of glass and balsam needles. I consoled myself with the thought that the Stewart's sale would take some of the sting out of the situation.

Consumers hunted bargains in the nation's stores in November, favoring discounters and specialty chains over department stores, and leaving winter apparel untouched on the racks amid spring-like weather throughout much of the nation.The nation's biggest retailers, which reported November sales yesterday, just barely met expectations, as gains at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Gap Inc. helped offset sharp declines at department store chains such as Sears, Roebuck and Co."The department stores have taken a bloodbath," said Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Trend Report in Upper Montclair, N.J. "The discount stores are doing quite well and thriving at the expense of the department stores."

Mild weather and deep discounts on end-of-year merchandise lured consumers into the nation's stores in January, where shoppers gave retail sales a healthy boost and helped pull apparel sales out of a slump.After a disappointing Christmas, apparel retailers saw monthly sales climb into the 10 percent range."Apparel has been weak up to this point, and there was no reason for apparel to show any strength, but merchants slashed prices and consumers came out of the woodwork," said Kenneth Gassman, a retail analyst with Davenport & Co. in Richmond, Va.The trend toward shopping either upscale or at mass discounters continued as well, while department stores took a hit with only marginal sales increases.

NEW YORK -- Sears, Roebuck & Co., Federated Department Stores Inc., May Department Stores Co. and other U.S. retailers are cutting prices throughout their stores to salvage a weaker-than-expected holiday season.Sales at stores open at least a year rose less than 1 percent in the season's first 24 days that ended Sunday, said First Data Corp.'s TeleCheck. Same-store sales have slowed since rising 3 percent over the Thanksgiving weekend as warm weather hurt demand for clothing and shoppers procrastinated or held out for lower prices.

Forty-three years ago, Baltimoreans were talking about the Dec. 27, 1954, closing of O'Neill & Co., the venerable downtown department store that had stood on the southwest corner of Charles and Lexington streets since 1882.It had survived the Great Fire of 1904, the coming of suburban shopping centers and competition from other department stores. only shuttered its doors after its management had been unable to negotiate new leases on its buildings.Today, there are still Baltimore homemakers who proudlyproduce at holidays and other occasions linen tablecloths and ,, napkins bought by their mothers and grandmothers at O'Neill & Co. a half-century or more ago. O'Neill's, as Baltimoreans always called the store, was known as the purveyor of the finest linen goods in the city.

Consumers bypassed department stores and upscale specialty shops in favor of the big discounters in September, while some retailers began seeing signs of eroding consumer confidence.The nation's biggest retailers reported mixed sales yesterday, though a penchant for bargains boosted sales at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kmart Corp., helping the retail sector as a whole beat analysts' expectations for the month."We are seeing an increasing shift of spending dollars from the more conventional department stores to discount stores," said Kurt Barnard of Barnard's Retail Trend Report.

Macy's Inc. announced yesterday that it will cut 7,000 jobs, almost 4 percent of its work force, and reduce its contributions to its employees' retirement funds and slash its dividend to preserve cash amid a severe pullback in consumer spending. The Cincinnati-based department store chain also announced the national rollout of a plan to localize merchandising to specific markets, which it began in some regions last year. The company, which also delivered downbeat earnings and sales forecasts for the year, said it plans to integrate all its geographic divisions into a single unit.

Well, it's done. The Chapter 11 filing this month by Boscov's Department Store LLC is heralded as a sign of lagging retail earnings since our "non-recession" began. However, all of us loyal Hecht's shoppers know the real truth. Boscov's was the five-and-dime of department stores. I went to the White Marsh store a total of three times in two years - me, the queen of shopping. The first visit I walked - no, ran - quickly out of the less-than-charming store, and over to Macy's. On the second visit, I bought a few items for my son and husband because I had 30 percent off coupons.

Frugal-minded shoppers spent their tax rebate checks at discount merchants last month, boosting sales at some of the country's largest chains. But they stayed away from higher-priced department stores and specialty stores, causing sales to fall by double-digits at Nordstrom Inc. and American Eagle Outfitters Inc. It was a sign that consumers are confining themselves to spending on the basics, and even then, they are looking for bargains, retail experts...

CHICAGO - The sprawling Macy's store on State Street here was once home to the premier name in Chicago retailing, Marshall Field's. But about a year and a half ago, Macy's forged one chain, with one name, out of Marshall Field's, Hecht's, Robinsons-May, Kaufmann's and other local department store names that it owned across the country. But Macy Inc.'s same-store sales were 1.3 percent lower last year than in 2006, and Chief Executive Officer Terry Lundgren is changing course, ditching the nationwide cookie-cutter approach in favor of tailoring merchandise at the world's largest department store chain by targeting local tastes.

Alfredo Cardona of Santa Ana, Calif., has always liked buying his clothes at Nordstrom, but lately he's switched to Burlington Coat Factory, where the prices are lower. The 24-year-old financial adviser said he now shops "anywhere you can save." And he's not alone. Retailers posted moderate sales results for June yesterday as shoppers kept spending but tried to get more for their money. Wall Street celebrated the sales report with major gains yesterday, seeing evidence that the retail economy was not collapsing amid a nationwide housing downturn.

The day after Thanksgiving is a special time for Michelle Robinson. Growing up in Atlanta, she and her mother would head to Macy's downtown to browse, shop and eat at the department store's cellar-level market. So, she and her sister-in-law, Jessica Robinson, arrived early yesterday at the Macy's in Towson Town Center expecting to snag some great deals. Though fans of department stores, the women left disappointed. "Macy's is known for great sales," said Michelle Robinson, 36, of Westminster, who managed to pick up a jacket for her husband but nothing else.

The great department stores once stood in every city like eternal sentinels of American commerce. In Baltimore, they anchored the corners of Howard and Lexington streets -- Stewart's, the Hecht Co., Hochschild-Kohn, Hutzler's. And now they are gone. Some wonder if the same fate awaits the American newspaper. What was once unthinkable is now thought about as newspaper companies struggle with declining circulation and profits. Few newspapers have disappeared, but the respected Knight Ridder chain is no more, a victim of pressure from shareholders as circulation and profit margins declined.

The official grand opening of Boscov's Department Stores at three local malls is today, but crowds of customers arrived to shop yesterday, paying $5 in the name of charity to get a sneak peek and to snare some early bargains. Shoppers gathered outside the entrances of the department stores before they opened to get a first glimpse at the retailer. Crowds continued throughout the day. Some got their photographs taken with the Monopoly man. Others snacked on free samples of the department store's homemade fudge and chocolate-covered pretzels.

As Boscov's department store chief Kenneth S. Lakin stood last week among the buzz of workers preparing to open three new stores in the Baltimore area, he was reminded of advice an uncle once offered while building the 95-year-old family retail chain. "You can always get married again," Al Boscov once said. "But you can only open a store once." Boscov's executives, in the midst of the company's largest expansion in its history, are bringing new stores to the Baltimore area Oct. 28 in Marley Station Mall, Owings Mills Mall and White Marsh Mall with $12 million in renovations.

CHICAGO -- Consumers shifted to higher-end stores in September, opening their wallets for fashionable clothing and accessories as a spell of chilly weather, a late start for back-to-school shopping and lower gas prices proved particularly helpful for upscale department stores and specialty retailers. With few notable exceptions, retailers turned in better-than-expected same-store sales results as consumers shopped for fleece, sweaters and leggings, monthly sales reports showed yesterday.