Lowe's jumps in customer rankings; new Concord Mills stores

Two pieces of quick news for Wednesday: Mooresville-based Lowe's Inc., the second-biggest home improvement retailer, jumped from fourth to second place in J.D. Power and Associates' customer satisfaction rankings, and Concord Mills announced three retailers set to open this year.

Lowe's, which had sales of nearly $49 billion last year, raised its scores in J.D. Power's fifth annual survey of home improvement customers. The increase was largely driven by improvements in merchandising, J.D. Powers said. Ace Hardware ranked first in the study, and Menards came in third (typo fixed - thanks, readers).

All of the retailers scored in a fairly narrow band between 708 and 786 on a 1,000-point scale used to judge retailer quality, with Lowe's beating the industry's average score of 754. Other interesting tidbits from the survey: The average customer spent $1,650 at home improvement stores in the last 12 months, and the percentage of customers using self-checkout stations rose from 42 to 53 percent.

Also on Wednesday, Lowe's announced it is donating another $500,000 to the Red Cross relief effort for victims of recent tornadoes, on top of $250,000 already gave.

Shifting gears, Concord Mills said on Wednesday that Crazy 8 will open there later this summer. Crazy 8 is a kid's clothing retailer run by the Gymboree Corporation. The mall also said that Relax Wellness, offering therapeutic chair massages, will open later this month, and Diva Nail Spa will have a grand opening for its remodeled store.