Strategy

Online delivery service provider Instacart has hired a veteran of a company known for extreme efficiency to take charge of its operations.

Mike Swartz, a retail veteran whose career notably includes a nine-year stint as director of operational excellence at Amazon.com from 1998-2007, is the new senior VP of operations for Instacart. Since Amazon, Swartz’ experience includes four years as senior VP of operations for specialty hair care e-commerce company Folica Inc. and four years as an independent consultant.

Twenty years after carrying its first craft brew at a single Kalamazoo store, Meijer is selling more than 34 locally-brewed craft beers each minute in Michigan while continuing to add up-and-coming local breweries to an extensive selection that rivals specialty stores across the Midwest.

Meijer says it expects to continue five years of double-digit volume growth in craft beer sales and plans to sell more than $90 million in craft beer in 2016, including $30 million in local and hyper-local craft beers produced by breweries in Michigan.

Online deal provider Groupon has joined an elite group – companies that have sold one billion products.

In Groupon’s case, the product is also known as a “Groupon,” or a limited-time, localized online promotion. It took Groupon, which launched in October 2008, roughly seven-and-a-half years to reach the billion-Groupon mark.

Gap Inc. says its fourth quarter results show the company's turnaround plan is working, but the retailer continues to post lackluster sales and earnings.

The parent company of Old Navy and Banana Republic says fourth-quarter profits were $214 million, or 53 cents per share, for the three-month period ended Jan. 30. That compares with $319 million or 75 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Revenue dropped nearly 7% in the quarter to $4.39 billion. Same-store sales declined 7%.

The CEO of Foot Locker credits the company's revised strategic framework with single digit sales gains and double digit earnings gains in the fourth quarter.

For the period ended Jan. 30, Foot Locker reported net Income of $1.14 per share, a 13% increase from the prior year quarter. Earnings per share were $1.16, 16% above last year. Same-store sales increased 7.9%.

Perhaps no other retailer is profiting as well from Americans' changing eating habits than Sprouts Farmers Market, which reported record sales and earnings for the fourth quarter.

The Arizona-based grocer said that same-store sales during the period ended Jan. 3 rose 7.4%. Net income was $28.2 million and diluted earnings per share were 18 cents. Net sales were $3.59 billion, a 21% increase compared to reported net sales in 2014. Adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.86, a 19% increase from 2014.

J.C. Penney continues to be a bright spot in the retail sector with impressive increases in same-store sales and earnings, as well as a new marketing campaign that is generating a lot of buzz.

On Thursday, the retailer announced that same store sales grew 4.1 % for the fourth quarter ended Jan. 30. A combination of strong sales growth, accelerated gross margins and disciplined expense reduction resulted in full year adjusted EBITDA of $715 million, a $435 million increase.

Most people do not get a paid holiday for “Leap Day,” Feb. 29.

Then again, most people do not work for online footwear and apparel retailer Zappos. Known for doing things a little differently, such as replacing the traditional bureaucratic management structure with decentralized “holacracy,” Zappos is taking a novel approach to Leap Day.

They are not mythological monsters, but a real phenomenon retailers say is limiting their ability to take advantage of emerging technologies.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is officially calling on Congress to pass patent reform legislation that would put an end to “shakedown settlements” forced on retailers by “patent trolls.” Patent trolls are companies that purchase often-obscure patents for technology they did not invent, then demand licensing fees from retailers and other businesses that may not realize the technology is patented.