Bass Pro Shops Completes Acquisition of Cabela’s

Kevin Mansell, Kohl's chairman, chief executive officer and president, said, "The traffic momentum that we saw in the combined March/April period accelerated in the second quarter. Though transactions for the quarter were lower than last year, July transactions increased. We are also excited by the sequential sales trend improvement in all our lines of business, all geographic regions, and in both our proprietary and national brand portfolios. Gross margin and SG&A expenses were consistent with our expectations and we are seeing benefits from our ongoing inventory initiatives and the early stages of our cost-saving initiative." Click Read More below for additional detail.

Bed Bath & Beyond plans to close about 200 stores during the next two years as it looks to return to profitability. The embattled home furnishings retailer, which operated a total of 1,478 stores as of May 30, announced the decision to “right-size” its real estate portfolio in reporting its first-quarter results. Bed Bath & Beyond said the closings, which will mostly affect its 955 namesake locations, and other cost restructurings should generate annual cost savings of between $250 million and $350 million, excluding related one-time costs. The company reported that its net loss narrowed to $302.29 million, or $2.44 per share, for the quarter ended May 30, from $371.09 million, or $2.91 a share, in the year-ago period. Sales tumbled 49% to $1.31 billion from $2.57 billion a year ago, as the retailer’s stores were temporarily shuttered for much of the quarter amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sustainability is playing an increasingly larger role in the lives of young consumers, particularly among Millennials (born 1981-1996) and Generation Z (born 1997 and after). This trend is expected to continue as Gen Z consumers enter the workforce and start setting up their own households. As a result, the Paper and Packaging Board’s “How Life Unfolds” Campaign® is launching a new sustainability-focused effort to more appealing to young consumers. “As our consumer audience begins to age up, we need to keep reaching out to younger generations with important sustainability messaging,” explains Mary Anne Hansan, president of the Paper and Packaging Board. “They are worried about the environment, have heard stories about recycling not being worthwhile and have misperceptions about the health of U.S. forests. That’s why we’ve created a campaign set to reach a younger audience with content that is both entertaining and educational.” The new effort is based in part on findings from The Hartman Group’s “Sustainability 2019: Beyond Business as Usual” study of American consumers aged 18-73. Researchers found that sustainability is “a cultural value and defining concern for today’s consumer,” and that “consumers increasingly hold companies and governments responsible for sustainability than individuals,” even as they adjust their own behaviors to lessen their personal environmental footprint.