Finance & Capital Management

New York City -- Kroger Co. is increasing its efforts to stop organized retail theft rings, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

The supermarket company now has an executive in charge of organized crime investigations. He oversees investigators in each of Kroger’s 17 divisions across the nation.

Delinquency trends in Target’s credit card portfolio just keep getting better. During April, the percentage of accounts 60 or 90 days past due sank to their lowest level of the past three years. Only 2.4% of accounts were 90 days past due during April, compared with 2.6% in March and 2.9% in February. Throughout most of 2009 and early 2010, the 90-day delinquency rates was above 4% and approached 5% at times.

NEW YORK —The unemployment rate in April edged up to 9.0%, compared with 8.8% in March 2011.

Construction employment was about unchanged in April, according to Friday's report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This industry has shown little net movement since early 2010, after having fallen sharply during the prior three years.

Overall, the economy added 244,000 jobs in April, a higher gain than anticipated by analysts.

As thousands of retailers and shopping center owners and managers prepare to descend on Las Vegas for the International Council of Shopping Centers’ 2012 RECon conference May 22-25, we thought it appropriate to talk with a retail real estate expert about not only the state of the industry, but also what to expect from this year’s show. 

Senior editor Katherine Field talked with Mitchel S. Friedman, senior VP of New York City-based RCS Real Estate Advisors, to gain his insights about the show and the industry as a whole.

New York City -- Massmart Holdings Ltd. promised to add jobs if Wal-Mart Stores is allowed to buy a controlling stake in the South African wholesaler, CEO Grant Pattison. His remarks were made on Monday at a tribunal in Pretoria, South Africa, that will determine whether Wal-Mart will be able to go through with the deal.

Boulder, Col. -- Sunflower Farmers Market appointed Chris S. Sherrell as its CEO, the natural grocery chain announced Friday. He has worked with Sunflower since its inception in 2002 and most recently served as the company's president and COO.

Sherrell has served as the acting CEO since the middle of February, shortly after Michael Gilliland, the company's founder and then-CEO, was arrested in Phoenix following a prostitution sting operated by undercover Phoenix Police Department officers.

SAN FRANCISCO — A new bill introduced by a California assemblywoman aims to curb the sale of alcohol to minors by prohibiting sales at self-service checkouts.

Assembly Bill 183, introduced last month by Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco and San Mateo Counties, was passed by the assembly committee. Assemblywoman Ma said that self-service checkouts are susceptible to technological failures, allowing minors to purchase alcohol.

Chelmsford, Mass. -- Retail hiring is on the rise, according to the May report of the Kronos Retail Labor Index, a family of metrics and indices that analyze the relationship between the demand and supply sides of the labor market within the U.S. retail sector.