Consumer Affairs & Relations

Bloomfield Hills, Mich. -- Taubman said that all four of its shopping centers in the state of Michigan -- Fairlane Town Center, Great Lakes Crossing Outlets, The Mall at Partridge Creek and Twelve Oaks Mall – have received StormReady designation from the National Weather Service, a component of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

New York -- Modell’s Sporting Goods will celebrate the grand opening of its store in Arlington, Va., on May 9.
   
The store is located in Pentagon Centre. With its opening, Modell’s will have a total of 154 storefronts.
 
“We are thrilled to have our 18th store in the Virginia-Maryland area,” said Modell’s president and CEO Mitchell Modell. “We look forward to becoming a stronghold in our new community and getting them everything they need for the summer.”
 

New York -- An OfficeMax shareholder sued the directors of the company on Thursday, seeking to block its acquisition by Office Depot Inc., Bloomberg reported. The investor called the proposed $1.2 billion all-stock deal "grossly inadequate".

"OfficeMax, if properly exposed to the market for corporate control, would bring a price materially in excess of the amount offered in the proposed transaction," the complaint filed by investor Eric Hollander said.

Pittsburgh -- Dick’s Sporting Goods has named Andre J. Hawaux as executive VP of finance and administration and CFO. He will oversee finance, legal, strategic planning and risk and compliance.

Hawaux has more than 30 years of experience as a retail/CPG executive, most recently as president of consumer foods at ConAgra Foods. He has also served in different executive roles in several divisions of PepsiCo.

New York -- Employees show increased levels of anxiety about their income, benefits and security, according to a new poll from Harris Interactive. Aggregated concern about these three issues rose from 56% in March to 57% in April.

LOS ANGELES — Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, is taking aim at Trader Joe’s in a full page ad it took out in the Los Angeles Times.

The union is calling out Trader Joe's for selling meat and poultry from animals raised on antibiotics. The ad highlights how the overuse of antibiotics by the meat and poultry industries on healthy animals is promoting the spread of drug resistant superbugs that threaten public health. 

ATLANTA — Kroger announced plans to host the largest Cinco de Mayo celebration in the Southeast at Fiesta Atlanta at Centennial Olympic Park this Sunday.

By Douglas H. Meal, David T. Cohen, and Lisa L. Rachlin, Ropes & Gray LLP

Retailers, like all businesses, constantly seek to learn more about their customers in order to serve them better. In Tyler v. Michaels Stores, however, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that a simple step taken by many retailers to help achieve this goal – collecting the ZIP codes of their customers at the point of sale – can in some circumstances violate Massachusetts’ consumer protection statute.