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Seattle — After landing stateside 2 years ago with its U.S. e-commerce platform, Australia-based women’s footwear brand, FRANKiE4, is amplifying its presence in North America. The brand recently rolled out wholesale partnerships with Nordstrom and J.Jill and will open a flagship store in Bellevue, Wash., just outside of Seattle, in September. This will be a permanent location following the success of its Bellevue Square pop-up location, which launched in April 2023. The brand’s upcoming Seattle store opening which will be located at The Bellevue Collection, a 1,300-square-foot store that will …

Oak Brook, Ill. — Ace Hardware, the largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative in the world, has opened more than 100 new stores in 2023, and is planning to open more than 170 by the end of the year. Globally, Ace has opened more than 1,100 stores in the past 5 years. “With over 100 new stores already opened for the year, we remain enthusiastically bullish about the continued prospect for new store growth,” says John Venhuizen, president and CEO of Ace Hardware. “I applaud our local Ace owners for the pace …

Pittsburgh, Pa. — DICK’S Sporting Goods has continued to expand the House of Sport brand as nine new locations celebrated their grand openings in July and August. These locations join the first three House of Sport stores in Victor, N.Y.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Minnetonka, Minn. DICK’S anticipates opening between 75 to 100 House of Sport stores by 2027. The new stores opened in the following communities: • Katy, Texas: The Shops at Park West • Baybrook, Texas: Baybrook Mall • Davenport, Iowa: Davenport Commons • Champaign, Ill.: Market Place Shopping …

Batavia, Ill. and Jacksonville, Fla. — German discount grocer Aldi has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket as part of a larger divestiture of Jacksonville, Fla.-based parent company Southeastern Grocers to various entities. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The Southeast-focused acquisition includes approximately 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys locations across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. Aldi, which maintains its U.S. headquarters in Batavia, Ill., first established its presence in the Southeast in the mid-1990s and has since invested $2.5 billion in the …