Labor & Employment

Seattle -- Starbucks Corp. announced a series of management changes that it said it was undertaking to accelerate its innovation and growth. The changes come after Starbucks missed its global sales forecasts in April, mainly due to a downturn in Europe.

The company named Craig Russell, the senior VP U.S. Store Services, as senior VP of the Global Coffee division.

New York -- Foot Locker Inc. said Thursday that current executive VP and retail group president Richard Johnson as been promoted to COO, giving the company veteran operational oversight of all the retailer’s banners. The appointment is effective immediately.

Along with its namesake Foot Locker stores, the company also operates Champs Sports, Kids Foot Locker and CCS.
 

Does J.C. Penney have time on its side? Or to put it another way: How long will investors wait for J.C. Penney’s transformation? Because, based on the chain’s awful first quarter, it doesn’t appear to have even taken root yet. I’m not surprised.

MINNEAPOLIS — The president of Shoppers Food and Pharmacy will transition to a new role, parent company Supervalu announced Tuesday.

When JCPenney hired former Target chief marketer, Michael Francis, to serve as president, the company no doubt thought he would bring with him a bit of Target's magic. Now, about six months since he assumed his role at JCPenney, the company has undergone a number of personnel changes and the implementation of its new "fair and square" price strategy, and investors are waiting for it to pay off.

WASHINGTON — Tanna Dang, a boutique owner in Honolulu, Hawaii was awarded the top $25,000 prize in the National Retail Federation’s inaugural “This is Retail” video contest. Florida’s Kim Williams of The Polka Dot press came in second place and will take home $15,000 and Illinois’ Susan Kaufman will take home $10,000 for third place. Nearly 1 million votes were cast by the public through NRF’s Retail Means Jobs website to choose the contest winners.

Lakeland, Fla. -- Publix Super Markets Inc. announced the promotion of Gino DiGrazia to VP finance.

In addition to his current responsibilities for business analysis and reporting, DiGrazia assumes many of the responsibilities previously held by Kelly Underhill, director of tax and treasury, who retired from Publix on March 30, 2012 after 22 years of dedicated service.
 

As part of Chain Store Age’s lead-up coverage to RECon 2012, to be held May 20-23 in Las Vegas, we talked with Jones Lang LaSalle’s Lew Kornberg about what his expectations are for the big real estate show. Visit JLL’s booth at RECon, Central Hall, C1001.

What are your expectations for RECon 2012 in terms of activity, attitude, priorities?

Rockville, Md. -- Divaris Real Estate, Virginia Beach, Va., said that Joseph Farina has been named manager of the firm’s Washington, D.C., regional office located in Rockville, Md.

Farina will focus on commercial sales and leasing services to support the expansion of DRE’s portfolio of leased and managed properties in the greater D.C., metropolitan area. 

PLANO, Texas —  From personnel changes to its new "fair and square" price strategy, JCPenney has put a lot into changing the company's image, and investors are waiting for it to pay off. For the first quarter, the company reported an adjusted net loss of $55 million or 25 cents per share, excluding markdowns taken as a result of the company's continuing efforts to reduce inventory levels to align with its new strategy, restructuring and management transition charges and non-cash qualified pension expense.