Michael's hit with a possible class action suit three weeks after their Pin Pads data breach. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court by a customer in Illinois who claims she used her debit card to buy $18.61 in goods from Michaels around March 15th and on May 4th, the day before the news broke nationwide, she tried to get cash at the bank but found her card deactivated after the bank noticed suspicious activity including two unauthorized transactions for $503 each.  Plaintiff's attorneys have asked the court to grant class-action status to the suit. This status would cover any U.S. resident who swiped their debit or credit card through a PIN pad to make a purchase at any Michaels store on or after Jan. 1, 2011.  (Source consumerist.com)

Over the Memorial Day weekend, customers at a Michaels craft store in Las Vegas became victims of the pin pad identity theft scheme when "according to Fox 5 News, customers began to see unauthorized ATM transactions from machines across the valley over the weekend."  (Source inquisitr.com)

May Same Store Sales
Saks Inc. same store sales up 20.2%
Costco same store sales up 13%
BJ's Wholesale same store sales up 7.4%
Nordstrom same store sales up 7.4%
Macy's same store sales up 7.4%
Limited Brands same store sales up 6%
Duckwall-Alco same store sales up 3.3%
Wet Seal same store sales up 2.9%
Target same store sales up 2.8%
Dillard's same store sales up 2%
TJX Companies same store sales up 2%
Rite Aid same store sales up 1.3%
Stein Mart same store sales up 0.7%
Fred's same store sales up 0.2%
Stage Stores same store sales flat
JC Penney same store sales down 1%
The Bon Ton same store sales down 2.3%
Cato same store sales down 3%
Gap same store sales down 4%

Dollar General Q1 reports same store sales up 5.4% with sales up 10.9%
Pier 1 Q1 reports same store sales up 10.2%
Charming Shoppes Q1 reports same store sales up 2%

Monroe County, Michigan law enforcement (Dundee police) have discovered the identities of a dozen members of an ORC ring that allegedly stole about $10,000 worth of merchandise from Cabela's and most are members on one family.  (Source monroenews.com)

The convicted robber of Angelo's Food Store in December 1988 where he stole $7 and gunned down a 29-year-old security guard who was on his second day of his new job, was put to death last night in Dallas, TX after 23 years of appeals.  (Source nbcdfw.com)

Shrevport, LA man, Dwight Reed, 51, was convicted on 19 counts last week in Federal Court for trafficking in counterfeit goods following a long investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.  Selling counterfeit goods in three different stores, ICE seized goods in Reed's stores in 2005 and 2006 and presented over 1,000 counterfeit trademarked items in court.  He faces 10 years in prison and a possible $2 million fine for each count.  "The creation, smuggling and sale of counterfeit goods is not a victimless crime," said Raymond R. Parmer, Jr., special agent in charge of ICE's Office of Investigations in New Orleans. "Products that are produced illegally do harm to trademark holders, may be smuggled into the country and distributed by organized crime groups and sold to the detriment of local businesses and communities who derive no financial gain from the illegal sales. ICE is committed to an aggressive approach towards enforcing the nation's intellectual property rights laws."  (Source ice.gov)

The iconic glass cube Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan is the most photographed location in the Big Apple.  In other words, more people take pictures of a retail store than any of the long-standing cultural and historical locations in the entire city. Mind = blown  (Source yahoo.com)

Two women were arrested in North Fort Myers, FL with two "booster bags" and a device used to disable anti-theft attachments.  (Source abc-7.com)

7-Eleven's owner Seven & i Holdings, the largest Japanese food retailer, said it was expecting sales for the current fiscal year to fall 10.2% and profits are expected to decline about 22% for the year following the massive earthquake and tsunami of March 11 and the resulting nuclear reactor crisis.  About 600 of its 7-Eleven locations in Japan were closed following the earthquake and tsunami, although many have since reopened.  Also, they closed 100 of their 170 Ork-Benimaru grocery stores.  (Source supermarketnews.com)

According to the 2011 edition of How Global is the Business of Retail, London is the world's most popular retail city and now shares the distinction for the first time with Dubai -- followed by New York City and then Paris.  The UK "maintained" the number one position in the top 20 most global retail markets above the U.S.  (Source thretailbulletin.com)

A San Francisco man who had his laptop stolen had just installed theft-detecting software on it and, after it was stolen, he received images from the software in his inbox that were grainy, low-lit and intimate pictures of a man curled up on a couch, sound asleep; the same man propped up against pillows on a bed shirtless.  The owner then went online publishing the pictures on Twitter and in a blog titled "This Guy Has My MacBook."   "People who followed me on Twitter retweeted it. It got picked up by social media and the press. It went super viral," he said. On the same day that he posted his website on Twitter, police came calling and on Tuesday arrested a 27-year-old cab driver, Muthanna Aldebashi.  Nothing like social media!  (Source Associated Press)

An international cybersecurity summit is taking place in London this week where hundreds of international delegates from governments and the private sector converged for the two-day conference to try to agree on the basics — how to enforce cybersecurity regulations across borders, what to do about countries that don't want to be regulated, how to protect government and company data and who will ultimately control cyberspace?  The threat grows every day. Natalya Kaspersky, co-founder of anti-virus software provider Kaspersky Lab ZAO, said Internet security firms were logging some 70,000 new malicious programs every 24 hours. Shawn Henry, executive assistant director of the FBI, said that last year alone his agency arrested more than 200 cybercriminals.  On a side note last month Kaspersky paid millions to get his son safely back from kidnappers.  (Source Associated Press)  

Annual Technology Showcase and Golf Outing
June 29-30, 2011
Hilton Hotel
Beachwood, OH

Limited number of free rooms available for out of town guests -- please RSVP by June 3

Please see our
Invitation and Agenda