Retail briefs

Kmart's focus on driving traffic with its Bluelight Always EDLP campaign — and simultaneously reducing its Sunday circular by 20 percent to 50 percent — has created good news/bad news regarding store traffic, chairman and ceo Chuck Conaway told analysts during a conference call last week. The positive: weekday traffic is up moderately, routine shopping on a comp basis is up 12 percent, and the market basket is up 2.5 percent. The cost: Sunday traffic is off and response to promotional sales is significantly off.

House2Home, the home decorating superstore that voluntary filed Chapter 11 on Nov. 7, has received approval from the bankruptcy court on an agency agreement by and between the company and a joint venture led by Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC, to liquidate merchandise in all 42 House2Home locations. Inventory liquidations are currently under way, a process that is expected to last 13 weeks.

After more than a decade of struggling to survive, McCrory is liquidating its 200 remaining stores, marking what liquidator Buxbaum Group ceo Paul Buxbaum called "the final chapter in the history of the last of the major five-and-dime retailers." McCrory filed for Chapter 11 in September, the second such filing in its history.

In a special advertising supplement to the Nov. 12 issue of Home Textiles Today, it was reported that WestPoint Stevens would be offering bed pillows, mattress pads and convoluted foam pads under the Simmons Backcare and Olympic Queen licensed brands. At the time this advertising supplement was written, WestPoint Stevens executives believed these brands were non-exclusive and available to be licensed from Simmons by WestPoint Stevens. It was determined at a later date, however, that Louisville Bedding Co. is the exclusive licensee for Simmons Backcare bed pillows, mattress pads, and foam pads.