Labor & Employment

Trenton, N.J. -- Amazon.com is contemplating opening two warehouses in New Jersey and is seeking a 22-month sales-tax holiday as part of the deal, according to reports by the Associated Press and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Amazon is not required, as brick-and-mortar retailers are, to collect the 7% state sales tax for purchases. If it acquires a physical presence in New Jersey by opening warehouses, it would have to collect taxes.

New York City -- The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index, released Thursday, continued downward in January and consumer spending will face additional economic headwinds in 2012, according to Deloitte. The Index tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending.

Woonsocket, R.I. -- CVS Caremark Corp.'s fourth-quarter earnings rose nearly 4% to $1.06 billion, amid increased pharmacy services revenue because of a long-term contract and new business. The company raised its 2012 earnings forecast by 3 cents per share to account for gains it expects because of a contract dispute between Walgreens and Express Scripts Inc.

Net revenues for the quarter increased 15.2% to a record $28.3 billion. Drugstore revenue increased 4%. Same-store sales were up 2.5%.

New York City -- The Jones Group reported a net loss of $21.1 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with $40.1 million a year earlier.

Fourth-quarter revenue totaled $893.6 million, which was in line with analysts' expectations but lower than the company's earlier forecast.

Schaumburg, Ill. -- Survey results released Tuesday by Nielsen found that nearly half (49%) of U.S. online consumers believe their personal finance prospects will be good or excellent over the next 12 months.

According to Nielsen’s Q4 global consumer confidence findings, the quarter’s results were the highest for 2011 and a six percentage point increase from Q3 2011. The number of U.S. respondents who described their job prospects as “bad” dropped from 28% to 19% between the third quarter and fourth quarter of last year as well.

Hong Kong -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Tuesday it has named Greg Foran as president and CEO of Walmart China. Foran, who joined Walmart last October, is a long-time veteran of Australian retailing group Woolworths, where his areas of experience included operations, merchandising, marketing and replenishment.

Foran succeeds Ed Chan, who resigned last year after a food scandal that involved mislabeled pork and the forced temporary closures of a dozen stores in central China.

There has been a lot of chatter in our industry circles — really, everywhere — about the recent big announcement from J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson regarding the iconic brand’s plans for the future. Anyone who’s visited a J.C. Penney lately — present company included — can see the brand needs to make some changes. They’ve been losing traction to competitors like Target and Kohl’s in recent years, and, in my opinion, have had some trouble defining themselves in a fairly crowded and competitive segment. Similar to the issues facing Sears, J.C.

Minneapolis -- Supervalu said Tuesday that will reduce its national work force by approximately 800 positions as part of its long-term turn-around strategy and ongoing efforts to reduce costs. The reductions include both current positions and open jobs that will not be filled.