Labor & Employment

Issaquah, Wash. – Costco Wholesale Corp. is reportedly off to a litigious start in the first half of 2015. According to the Wall Street Journal, Costco is suing Johnson & Johnson’s Vision Care division for allegedly fixing prices on contact lenses.

True Value Company has selected a specialty retail veteran as its next chief financial officer.

WinCo Foods LLC is marking its 100th store opening with a huge celebration in Texas on May 7.

The newest WinCo Foods store is located at 1288 W. Main St. in Lewisville and is the fifth WinCo Foods store to open in Texas. Occupying approximately 83,000 square feet the store will initially employ approximately 150 individuals, about 140 of whom have been hired locally.

New York -- O’Reilly Automotive posted a strong first quarter, laying the foundation for continued growth in 2015. America’s second largest retailer in the automotive aftermarket industry said its expansion plans are on track after profit rose in the first quarter on higher sales and better margins, continuing a trend of 15% or greater profit growth for the past six years. The company said it plans to build a new distribution center in Texas to help support its 205 new stores in 2015.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is shuffling a number of key executives and also tinkering with its organizational structure. Veteran Wal-Mart operator Mike Moore, who currently serves as executive VP of the 613-unit Neighborhood Market division, will transition to a new executive VP role with oversight of Wal-Mart’s much larger 3,421-unit supercenter operation in the U.S.

Assuming Moore’s previous position is Wal-Mart West executive VP Julie Murphy.

Lakeland, Fla. – Publix Super Markets Inc. satisfied the public in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. The retailer’s net income jumped 11% to $548.9 million from $493.7 million in the same period a year earlier.

Sales were $8.3 billion, a 7% increase from $7.8 billion. Same-store sales increased 5.3%.

Publix stock is not publicly traded and is made available for sale only to current Publix associates and members of its board of directors.

Greenboro, N.C. – The Fresh Market Inc. has elected Michael D. Casey, CEO and a director of Carter’s Inc., and Robert K. Shearer, formerly CFO of V.F. Corp, and currently a director of Church & Dwight Co. Inc., as independent directors. With these additions, The Fresh Market’s board has nine directors, eight of whom are independent directors.

San Jose, Calif. – eBay Inc. shareholders have reportedly voted themselves a measure of power to nominate directors on the company’s board. According to the Wall Street Journal, 59% of shares voting at the meeting approved allowing investors who hold at least 3% of eBay’s shares for three years to nominate up to 25% of the company’s directors.

Dallas – Tuesday Morning Corp. has promoted Melissa Phillips, who currently serves as executive VP and general merchandise manager, to the newly created position of president and COO. In this role, Phillips will be directly responsible for merchandising, store operations and marketing, and will report directly to CEO Michael Rouleau.

Secaucus, N.J. – Three days after an activist investor group filed a presentation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) urging the election of new board members and claiming poor performance, The Children's Place Inc. has its own investor presentation with the SEC.

The presentation endorses the re-election of three board candidates at the May 22 annual meeting: Norman Matthews (chairman of the board), Kenneth Reiss (chair of the audit committee) and Stanley W. Reynolds (member of the audit committee).