Labor & Employment

New York -- Target Corp. has laid off about 140 employees from its Minneapolis headquarters as part of its transformation efforts, and eliminated 50 open positions, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

Including the latest round of cuts, Target has let go about 2,500 workers this year.

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Camp Hill, Pa. -- Rite Aid's first-quarter earnings plunged 55%, mainly on costs tied to a $2 billion acquisition. The chain also lowered its full-year profit outlook.

The drugstore chain in February announced that it would buy pharmacy benefits manager EnvisionRx.  Rite Aid said it expects the deal, expected to close by the beginning of July, to increase its annual revenue by as much as 18.6%.

The retailer earned $18.8 million in the quarter that ended May 30, down from $41.4 million in the year ago period.

New York -- Greeters are back on the job welcoming entering shoppers at select Walmart stores, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The chain moved most of its greeters away from the entrance and to other areas of the stores several years ago. But it has returned the associates to the entrances in several hundred stores in a move that is partially designed to stop theft, the report said.
 

New York -- A former executive from Wal-Mart Stores has joined up with a real estate executive to expand New York City-based luxury home décor retailer Gracious Home.

Dottie Mattison who served in a variety of executive roles from 2006 to 2010 at Wal-Mart, including senior VP and general manager of the apparel global merchandising center and chief merchant of Walmart.com, has teamed up with David Mitchell to buy a majority stake in Gracious Home for an undisclosed price. Mattison will serve as CEO and Mitchell as chairman.

A former Walmart executive has joined with a real estate executive to expand New York City-based luxury home décor retailer Gracious Home.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune is reporting that Target laid off 140 staffers and eliminated 50 open positions at its headquarters on Wednesday.

According to the newspaper, the eliminated positions were in places “we identified redundancies or opportunities for greater efficiencies,” Molly Snyder, a Target spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail. 

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Usually it’s California causing regulatory headaches for retailers and suppliers, but now tiny Vermont is getting in on the action with onerous labeling requirements and hefty fines that are expected to be a compliance nightmare.

Walmart is moving its greeters back to the front of the store three years after the retailer moved them to the back.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the retailer is experimenting with moving the greeters back to the front of the store in part to deter theft. Walmart is testing the approach in several hundred of its 4,500 or so U.S. stores, the newspaper says.

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New York -- One of the world’s largest retailers has undertaken a search is underway for a new CEO to execute a massive transformation. But getting to the interview will require U.S. executives to take a very long flight and the successful applicant will need good listening skills to decipher the accent of co-workers.

Brooklyn, N.Y. - Home furnishings retailer West Elm has named Johanna Uurasjarvi as senior VP of design, responsible for guiding the overall creative direction of the West Elm brand across its retail, catalog and online channels. She will lead the product design team and report to West Elm president Jim Brett.