Marketing

Home furnishings retailer West Elm has named a new senior vice president of design for its retail, catalog and online channels.

The company says Johanna Uurasjarvi will lead the product design team and report to West Elm President Jim Brett.

Bringing more than 20 years of fashion design experience and a lifetime of passion for design and global craft, Uurasjarvi joins West Elm from the lifestyle brand, Anthropologie, where she was the executive creative director of product design.

Pier 1 Imports reported same store sales growth for the first quarter, which the company’s CEO credited to the completion of an omnichannel transformation.

New York — Gap stores have failed to keep up with the fashion tastes of millennial shoppers, who have a much different fashion sense than the generation before them, according to the Washington Post. Read the full story here.

Dollar General, which recently opened its 12,000 store, has named five executives to key leadership positions within its global supply chain functions and merchandising organizations.

The following promotions are effective immediately:

•   Mike Kindy has been promoted to senior VP, global supply chain with responsibility for transportation as well as inventory and demand management, demand planning and supply chain solutions. Kindy has been with Dollar General since 2007.

Generation Y prefers to shop at Walmart over Target, Costco, Kroger, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s, according to Ad Age.

"Millennials now, as a generation, like Walmart the best, more so than Generation X, more so than boomers," Matt Kistler, Walmart’s senior VP-consumer insights and analytics, said.

Walmart is most popular among people under 24, as well as every store but Target among 25- to 34-year-olds, according to InfoScout, a provider of shopper insights with a nationwide panel of more than 170,000 shoppers.

New York — Authentic Brands Group LLC (ABG) , whose brands include Jones New York and Juicy Couture, has closed on its purchase of Frederick's of Hollywood Group for an undisclosed sum. Previous reports indicated the acquisition agreement, announced in April 2015, was for $22.5 million.

Green Bay, Wisc. — Shopko continues to expand, with the opening of 15 Shopko Hometown stores across eight states this July.  The  new locations join 20 stores Shopko opened earlier this year and more than 15 additional stores the company plans to open in October.  

Aliso Viejo, Calif. — Johnny Rockets plans to open 25 new domestic stores during 2015 and 100 new domestic stores by 2017 via franchise expansion.

The casual dining chain is targeting the following U.S. cities for franchise growth in its Johnny Rockets, Johnny Rockets Express and Johnny Rockets Route 66 banners: Tucson, Arizona; Houston, Bridgewater, New Jersey., Gainesville, Florida; and Bakersfield and Fresno, California.

St. Louis — Panera Bread has unveiled a new national omnichannel advertising platform. Developed in collaboration with the Anomaly agency, the "Food as it should be" campaign includes national television spots, billboards, radio advertising and digital and display content that will begin to air this week.

Shopko is continuing on its growth path with the opening of 15 new Shopko Hometown stores across eight states this July.

The new locations join 20 stores Shopko already opened earlier this year and more than 15 additional stores the company plans to open in October.