Consumer Affairs & Relations

HINGHAM, Mass. — Talbots reported that first quarter income from continuing operations was $0.9 million, or 1 cent per share, compared with last year’s loss from continuing operations of $7.1 million, or 12 cents per share.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Boyd Clark was named SVP buying at Big 5 Sporting Goods following the resignation of long-time head merchant Thomas Schlauch, the company announced.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Monday named Steve Pemberton the company’s divisional VP of diversity and inclusion, becoming the company’s first chief diversity officer.

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. — NPD Group named Perry James, a 16-year veteran with the research firm, as the new president of home and office supplies. 

James replaces Peter Goldman, who moved on to a position within NPD as SVP technology analyst business. 

Before his current position, James was president of NPD’s office supplies and software businesses. From 2005 through 2007, he was with the home group on the business development side.

Yonkers, N.Y. -- Americans are frustrated with the state of customer service, according to a new survey by Consumer Reports magazine. In the survey, 65% of the respondents said they are "tremendously annoyed" by rude salespeople and 64% said that they had left a store in the previous 12 months because of poor service.

Consumer Reports also found that 71% of survey respondents were extremely irritated when they couldn't reach a human on the phone.

Hingham, Mass. -- The Talbots reported Tuesday that first-quarter profit was $739,000, compared with a loss of $4.4 million in the year-ago period. However, net sales dropped 6% to $301.3 million, compared with $320.7 million in the same period last year, and consolidated same-store sales decreased 7.7%.

Results missed Wall Street estimates and the company has lowered its second quarter outlook.

New York City -- A $15 billion share buyback program, unveiled earlier in June, will allow Wal-Mart Stores’ founder Sam Walton’s descendants to see their stake in the chain edge up above 50%.

After Walton died in 1992, family members retained a stake of around 38% from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. Starting in 2003, a series of big share buybacks began to push the family stake higher, to 43% in 2008 and now to 49%, according to the latest filings.

New York City -- Johnny Rockets debuted its updated interior design at its just-opened restaurant at South Street Seaport, in New York City.

"I've waited 10 years for this site, and we've taken great care to preserve the historical aspects of the building, while keeping to the tradition of our sleek and modern American feel," said Johnny Rockets franchise owner Bill White. "

Heading into last Friday’s annual meeting, the financial community had high expectations Walmart would allocate additional funds to buy back stock, and the company didn’t disappoint. The $15 billion share repurchase authorization CFO Charles Holley announced replaced an existing $15 billion program approved one year earlier that had dwindled to just $2 billion due to the fact that Walmart was an aggressive purchaser of its own stock during the past 12 months.

It takes a special type of person to work at Walmart, according to chief information officer Rollin Ford, who told those assembled at the company’s shareholders’ meeting that customer service is in their DNA.

Ford, a 28-year Walmart executive, was called into service for a brief presentation at the meeting to recount his experience of working at Walmart while founder Sam Walton was still alive, since most of the thousands of store associates and many of the executives who attended the event joined the company after Walton death nearly 20 years ago.