Best of Awards

MediaPost this week named the Walgreens app the best retail app at its Appy awards during the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. 

The 2012 version of the Walgreens app included a rewards program, integration with Apple’s Passbook and photo-editing capability. The app also featured in-store mapping to all 8,000 of its stores through a partnership with Aisle411.

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — Office Max's retail website, OfficeMax.com, was named a 2012 Best of the Web award winner. The fourth annual Best of the Web Compuware Application Performance Awards showcase leaders in web and mobile site performance across several major industries nationwide.

Check out the video of the latest jewel in  Simons' department store portfolio. The 118,00-sq.-ft. store, in West Edmonton Mall,  Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) took top honors in Chain's Store Age's Retail Store of the Year Design competition.

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EMERYVILLE, Calif. -- LeapFrog Enterprises was honored at 13th annual Toy Industry Association's Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards ceremony held in New York on Feb. 9, receiving recognition in two categories. The learning tablet, LeapPad2, received the inaugural "People's Choice Toy of the Year" and "Educational Toy of the Year" awards. 

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The retired head of Midwestern supermarket chain Hy-Vee took home the top honor at a recent supermarket industry conference.

The Food Marketing Institute said Monday that it gave its most prestigious honor — the Sidney R. Rabb Award for excellence in serving the consumer, the community and the industry — to retired Hy-Vee chairman and CEO Ric Jurgens at the FMI Midwinter Executive Conference.

Walmart's Asda business earned the title of "Lowest Priced Supermarket" at The Grocer Gold Awards for the 15th straight year. The retailer was also named "Britain’s Favorite Supermarket" for the second year in a row.

London -- The British department store Selfridges received the “Best Department Store in the World” award at the Global Department Store Summit in Paris.

Selfridges took the top slot amongst finalists from around the globe, including Macy's and Woolworths (South Africa). The U.K. retailer also won the award, which is given out every two years, in 2010.

SALT LAKE CITY — O.co, formerly Overstock.com, announced that its CEO, Dr. Patrick Byrne, was named executive of the year at the 2011 American Business Awards. O.co was also named best overall company (up to 2,500 employees).

"This is a great achievement for O.co," Byrne said. "I thank and applaud all my colleagues on this great achievement."

Oak Brook, Ill. -- The J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. Home Improvement Retailer Store Satisfaction Study again ranked Ace Hardware “Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Home Improvement Retail Stores.” Ace has held this position since the organization began researching the home improvement category five years ago.