Strategy

Watch out Uber, Amazon may just steal away your drivers. The online giant is launching an Uber-like program, called Flex, which uses on-demand independent contractors to deliver Amazon packages. The service is now available only in Seattle (and only to members of Amazon’s Prime Now same-day delivery service), but the company expects to roll it out to other cities where Prime Now is offered, including Manhattan, Baltimore, Miami, Dallas, and Chicago.

Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) is launching a wide-ranging cost-cutting initiative and corporate realignment strategy, with omnichannel technology at the center.

The realignment will include a reduction of about 265 corporate employees, expected to result in an annual savings of $75-million a year. The cuts are mostly in the company’s U.S. corporate offices in New York.

GameStop must know something other retailers don’t judging from the retailer’s plans to increase holiday hiring.

Other retailers who have announced season hiring plans kept this year’s projections at or near last year’s levels, but GameStop said it will increase holiday hiring by 12% and bring on 28,000 workers at its 6,800 stores and other facilities.

Detroit’s fledging reputation as a Midwest Silicon Valley took took a big step forward with the news that Amazon is creating a tech hub in the Motor City.

“Michigan is a rapidly growing technology corridor and we’re eager to bring the incredible local Detroit talent to Amazon,” Peter Faricy, VP for Amazon Marketplace, told the Detroit. Free Press.

Michael Rouleau was never seen as a long-term leadership solution as Tuesday Morning’s CEO, but the veteran retailer’s abrupt departure with no immediate successor named reveals the off-price retailer lacked a succession plan.

The company said Rouleau, 77, will remain in a consultative capacity until March 31, 2016 and that it had created a new Office of the Chairman led by current Board Chairman Steven Becker to support oversight of the company’s strategic initiatives until a new CEO can be hired.

The top executive at Gap Inc.’s fastest growing division, Old Navy, has resigned to become CEO of Ralph Lauren.

Gap Inc. said that Stefan Larsson would step down as global president of Old Navy effective October 2, 2015, and the division would be led on an interim basis by Jill Stanton, executive VP of global product at Old Navy.

New rankings from the Great Places to Work Institute suggests the retail and consumer packaged goods are not good industries for women.

The only retailers to make the institute’s top 100 list of best places for women to work were Build A Bear Workshop (10), The Container Store (27), Wegman’s (54) and L.L. Bean (84). The CPG industry fared even worse with not a single company included in the top 100.

Sports Authority is putting its philanthropic focus on helping disabled children and adults enjoy more therapeutic recreation, competition and adaptive sports.

The retailer announced Wednesday that it will collect point-of-sale donations at Sports Authority locations nationwide to support the National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) throughout the month of October.

After a new donation pledge from Publix Super Markets, the international nonprofit Habitat for Humanity will be able to build 40 new houses in 2016 in the Southeast, where Publix serves all of its customers.

Walgreens has teamed up with Western Union on an initiative that may generate the drugstore chain a lot more traffic and sales.

The nation’s largest drugstore chain has launched Western Union Bill Payment services via digital self-service kiosks, allowing customers to make payments to 15,000 billers across the United States and beyond.