Awards

New York — Edens has announced the winner of the 2014 Edens Retail Challenge, a nation-wide student competition seeking compelling new retail concepts.

This year’s winner is Joe Cut, a mobile hair salon that brings the haircut directly to the business college student through a mobile store and reservation app. Babson College undergraduates Michael Kliska, Paulina Bosque, Adriana Contreras and Nina Shapiro founded the business, which will primarily service male customers on campuses in the U.S.

Washington -- Illinois tops the United States Green Building Council’s ranking of the Top 10 States for LEED-certified construction for last year. The list highlights the regions around the country that are at the forefront of sustainable building design and transformation.

The per-capita list includes commercial and institutional green building projects that were certified throughout 2013.

Waban, Mass. -- H.E.B. Grocery, Trader Joe's, Chick-fil-A, and Publix earned the highest scores in the 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings, which ranked 268 companies across 19 industries. Joining those firms in the top 14 spots are Aldi, Food Lion, Sonic Drive-In, credit unions, Dairy Queen, Kroger, Piggly Wiggly, Regions, Sam's Club, and Starbucks.

Walmart honored more than a dozen trucking and transportation partners this week as “Carriers of the Year,” and the list includes many of the supply chain world’s biggest companies along with some lesser known firms.

In addition to its massive private trucking fleet, the enormity of Walmart’s business means it works with more than 400 third party carriers. Out of those the company recognized 13 companies and further singled out Charlie Crawford from UPS as carrier representative  of the year.

Purchase, N.Y. — KicksUSA, a regional retailer offering athletic footwear and family apparel, has opened a 4,600-sq.-ft. store at CooperTowne Center in Somerdale, N.J., according to National Realty & Development Corp., the owner of the center.

Wal-Mart Supercenter, Cinemark Theatres and LA Fitness anchor CooperTowne Center.

Overstock.com has been named the 2013 Compuware Best of the Web Gold award winner in the U.S. Retail Product Order Transaction category and the Bronze award winner in the U.S. Retail Last Mile category.

The annual Compuware Best of the Web awards honors the top performing mobile and websites. The awards measure home page and key user transactions based on average response time, availability and consistency of websites across five U.S. industries (i.e. retail, banking, brokerage, insurance and travel) based on analysis throughout 2013.

Health and beauty pioneer Horst Rechelbacher died at his home in Osceola, Wis., at the age of 72 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.