Awards

When it comes to customer experience, home improvement shoppers have established a long-term favorite.

Ace Hardware ranks highest in customer satisfaction with home improvement retailers for a 10th consecutive year, according to the J.D. Power 2016 Home Improvement Retailer Satisfaction Study. The study measures customer satisfaction with home improvement retailers by examining merchandise; price; sales and promotions; staff and service; and store facility. Satisfaction is measured on a 1,000-point scale.

Russ Dispense, president of the King Soopers division of The Kroger Co., plans to retire on July 1 after 51 years with the company.

Dispense began his career with Kroger in 1965, when he joined King Soopers as a courtesy clerk. He served in various leadership positions in stores and district management through the years, as well as at warehouses, manufacturing plants and administrative offices. Dispense was promoted to VP of retail operations and merchandising for the King Soopers division in 1983. He also served as VP of real estate.

When it comes to providing online customer service, Land’s End is the one to beat.

StellaService, an independent company that measures the customer service performance of online businesses, recognized Lands' End with the 2016 StellaService Elite Award for exceptional customer service.

StellaService cited Lands' End for excelling in phone, chat and email, with a phone response time of less than 45 seconds.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) has named Gary Cammack, owner of Cammack Ranch Supply in Union Center, South Dakota, as the 2016 America’s Retail Champion of the Year.

The award was presented Tuesday, May 24, at NRF’s annual Retail Advocates Summit as small retailers from across the country were honored for their advocacy on behalf of the industry while in Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress on a variety of public policy issues.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is saying thanks to representatives in Congress who back retailers on important issues.

Chain Store Age’s annual search for 10 retail real estate stars under the age of 40 years resulted in this: Ten youthful, creative, hard-charging industry executives.

Some are retailers, others are brokers or from shopping center companies. Three are women. One is under the age of 30. There’s a single Canadian in the bunch. Two work for CBRE. Each has studied the business, sought out mentors, and researched and taken on the issues of the day.

When it comes to supply chain leadership and best practices, a fast food chain beat out the world’s leading e-commerce and discount retailers.

According to the new Gartner Inc. Supply Chain Top 25 ranking, McDonald’s led all retail chains with the number two ranking. Consumer products giant Unilever ranked first among all companies.

The Store of the Year, ShopWithMe (photo above), and all the other winning projects in the Retail Design Institute’s 45th annual International Store Design Competition are highlighted in this special report from Chain Store Age.

Download it here.

Five dynamic retail and restaurant brands — Altar’d State, Bentley’s Pet Stuff, MOD Pizza, Sugarfina and Warby Parker — took home the honors as the winners of Chain Store Age’s annual Breakout Retailer Awards.

The awards, selected by CSA’s editorial board and sponsored by Paint Folks, recognize innovative retail and restaurant concepts that are on their way up —brands that have crossed the “newbie” line, and are well positioned for growth, in store, online, or both.