Retail

The department store chain House of Fraser has gone into administration, a decision that puts 17,000 jobs at risk in the 169-year old business.

New Zealand plans to ban disposable plastic shopping bags by next July as the nation tries to live up to its clean-and-green image.

Stocks that moved substantially or traded Thursday: Rite Aid Corp., down 20 cents to $1.54 The drugstore chain ended its deal to sell itself to the Albertsons grocery chain for $24 billion.

Major U.S. indexes stood stock-still for the third consecutive day Thursday as gains for retailers were canceled out by losses for banks and other companies.

If sales are strong, Party City will also sell Christmas and New Year’s-themed products on Amazon later this year.

Drugstore chain Rite Aid and grocer Albertsons say they have called off their merger deal.

Major U.S. indexes are little changed Thursday morning as technology stocks rise while energy companies and banks slip.

Colorado-based footwear company Crocs Inc. is closing company-owned manufacturing plants in Italy and Mexico by year's end and replacing its chief financial officer.

J.C. Penney is expanding the baby products it sells at stores beyond clothing as the department store joins the many other chains trying to claim some of the Babies R Us sales up for grabs.

Among the stories Thursday from The Associated Press: TOP STORIES: SINCLAIR TRIBUNE TERMINATED — Tribune Media is ending its $3.9 billion deal with Sinclair Broadcast and has filed a lawsuit against the company, citing breach of contract.

Band music and loud cheers greet hundreds of Indian buyers as Swedish home furniture giant IKEA opened its first store in the country, five years after it received approval to invest in India's single-brand retail sector.

Small family operated dairy farms with cows freely grazing on verdant pastures are going out business as large confined animal operations with thousands of animals lined up in assembly-line fashion are expanding into the organic market.

Casper has relied primarily on direct-to-consumer sales through its website since it launched in 2014.

Online mattress seller Casper plans to open 200 stores in the U.S. over the next three years as part of an effort to solidify its position in the retail market.

New kinds of installment plans are offering options to shoppers who may remember layaway as something their parents or grandparents used.

It’s the first of 25 stores that the furniture giant plans to open.

CVS Health's second-quarter performance beat Wall Street expectations, and the nation's second-largest drugstore chain also narrowed its forecast for 2018.

Bill Clinton is a now a million-selling novelist.

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