Strategy

Home Depot disclosed an ongoing Environmental Protection Agency investigation into its lead safety practices related to its installation services business.   In an SEC filing published on Thursday, Home Depot disclosed an investigation by the EPA's criminal investigation division into its compliance with lead-safe work practices. Home Depot is currently cooperating with the EPA, having previously responded to civil document requests from several EPA regions.  

Hy-Vee shoppers will soon be able to buy new clothes while they grocery shop.    Two Hy-Vee locations in Nebraska will soon feature F&F clothing boutiques through the Iowa-based retailer’s franchise agreement with the British clothing line owned by supermarket company Tesco, reported The Anchorage Press.  

Payless could be the newest retailer headed toward bankruptcy.   The struggling retailer could file for bankruptcy as soon as next week. In the meantime, Payless is already making plans to reorganize operations by shuttering stores, according to Bloomberg.   

The baton has officially been passed at Macy’s.   Jeff Gennette has been named as the department store chain’s new CEO, succeeding Terry Lundgren, who will continue as executive chairman.   Gennette, who has served as Macy’s president since 2014, is Lundgren’s handpicked successor. Prior to becoming president, he was appointed Macy’s chief merchandising officer in 2009.  

The chief executive of Citi Trends has resigned after two years on the job.   The value-oriented fashion retailer said that Jason Mazzola has resigned as CEO and director “to pursue another opportunity.” It named retail veteran Bruce Smith, currently Citi Trends COO and CFO, as acting chief executive officer, and Ed Anderson as executive chairman, effective immediately.    

Whole Foods Market has opened its second largest location in Chicagoland.     The supermarket retailer has opened a 76,000-sq.-ft. store in the city’s Lakeview area. It replaces an older Whole Foods across the street. The older store, which opened in 1996, closed the day the new store opened.   

Despite dire statements made on a recent SEC filing, Sears and Kmart stores will remain as fixtures on the retail landscape for some time to come, according to retail real estate experts contacted by Chain Store Age.   “The news was not news,” said REIT analyst Alexander Goldfarb of Sandler O’Neill + Partners about a Sears filing that questioned its own future as a “going concern.”  

Next week, Casto and local officials will stick shovels in the ground in the East Franklinton section of Columbus and signal a major event in the rebuilding of what was the original settlement of Franklin County, Ohio.   Columbus five years ago razed the crime-ridden Riverside-Bradley public housing complex in the area on the city’s west side, and it is there that Casto will build River & Rich, a mixed-use project with 230 garden and townhouse apartments and 25,000 sq. ft. of retail.