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TJX, BOB’S STORES

TJX, owner of Marshalls, T.J. Maxx and other discount apparel chains, is buying the assets of the 36-unit Bob’s Stores. TJX will pay $100 million for the East Coast off-price apparel chain, which it plans to expand. The parties anticipate closing the deal by year-end.

COMPUSA, GOOD GUYS

Computer retailer CompUSA is buying the 71-store, West Coast electronics chain Good Guys for about $55 million, or $2.05 per share. Pending shareholder approval, the deal could close by February.

J.C. PENNEY

J.C. Penney sold its four Mexican department stores to Grupo Sanborns, Mexico City, for $25 million and will be exiting the market. Penney faced difficulties because merchandising in Mexico and the United States are different beasts, and the retailer needs to concentrate on its core U.S. stores rather than on units abroad, says Walter Loeb, a retail analyst at New York City-based Loeb & Associates.

SAM’S CLUB

Wal-Mart brought its Sam’s Club chain to Canada, opening four units in Ontario. Wal-Mart operates 532 Sam’s Club stores in the United States.

PENN TRAFFIC

Penn Traffic will be closing 25 grocery stores under the Big Bear, Bilo, P&C and Quality names, keeping 186 units. The chain operates stores in New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont and West Virginia. All of those states will see closures except New Hampshire.

KB TOYS, SEARS

KB Toys has opened stores inside 600 Sears units across the country, in time for the holiday season. That’s up from just 77 this summer.

KOHL’S

Estée Lauder plans to open cosmetics departments in all of Kohl’s department stores by the fall of 2005. Currently, Kohl’s has 542 units.

BORDERS

Borders Books & Music will open two Chicago stores early next year, one in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and the other in Uptown. Excluding those, Borders currently has 29 stores in the Greater Chicago area.

MARTIER

Women’s clothier Martier opened its first store outside New York City, in the Mizner Park mixed-use center in Boca Raton, Fla. The retailer plans to open 10 more stores on the East Coast over the next two years.

FILENE’S

Filene’s Basement is opening a 140,000-square-foot department store in Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust’s Dartmouth (Mass.) Mall next fall.

SHOPKO

ShopKo Stores will open its first ShopKo Express Rx drugstore next fall in Ledgeview, Wis., near Green Bay. These stores offer health products, business supplies, photo processing, food, beverages and other items.

KMART

Kmart started a television advertising campaign in the fall that it says “will firmly establish that Kmart knows its customers share a lifestyle and attitude that are heavily influenced by urban trends.”

LAZARUS-MACY’S

Federated Department Stores will close its Lazarus-Macy’s store in downtown Columbus, Ohio, by August. The company says sales at the store have fallen by 60 percent since 1995. May Department Stores said in July that it plans to shut its Columbus Lord & Taylor unit in the Polaris Fashion Place mall.

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