Strategy

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Holdings had tapped a Gymboree exec as president and put her in charge of Sears’ Shop Your Way loyalty program.

Sears is using the program to align its online and offline operations.

With its stock trading at a 52-week low, Sears has made an interesting choice to lead its department store business.

The company says it has found a new executive to develop a strategy for the Sears format that focuses on meeting the needs of the Shop Your Way member.  

With Amazon.com’s share price approaching $500 on the heels of a highly publicized 20th anniversary promotional event, the struggling Books-A-Million chain announced a deal to go private for a paltry sum.

The Books-A-Million chain was always a distant competitor to the likes of Barnes & Noble and even the now defunct Borders chain. Then along came Amazon.com and Books-A-Million grew more irrelevant. As its sales and profits declined so did its growth prospects in the eyes of investors and its stock price.

Retailers who sell food have seen firsthand the huge shift in consumer behavior toward natural, organic, gluten free and non-GMO products. Offering a view of what’s next in the grocery aisle this week was leading food supplier General Mills.

As part of an investor day to unveil growth strategies, the $18.8 billion company shared details about a broad range of new product introductions that debut this summer and are expected to drive retail sales.

QVC is ramping up its distribution network on the West Coast with a new, state of the art facility in Ontario, Calif.

The multichannel retailer plans to open a West Coast distribution hub there in 2016. As QVC ramps up operations, the center is expected to employ more than 500 team members by 2018. QVC anticipates hiring approximately 1,000 team members in total by 2020 as the distribution center expands fulfillment to all product categories.

Cloud-based commerce platform Shopify is recognizing six new startups with awards.

This year’s winners of the Shopify Build a Better Business contest ranged from a GPS-enabled suitcase, to a wearable that zaps users to reduce bad habits, to an innovative mattress.

Ankeny, Iowa - Casey’s General Stores Inc. is set to have its first new CEO in more than a quarter-century. After more than 26 years with the company, Robert J. Myers, chairman and CEO, will retire as CEO at the end of the 2016 fiscal year on April 30, 2016.

Plano, Texas - Rent-A-Center Inc. has sold 14 rent-to-own stores located in Alberta and Ontario, Canada to Canadian merchandise leasing company Easyhome Ltd. The transaction included Rent-a-Center concurrently purchasing three Easyhome rent-to-own stores located in Florida, Missouri and New York.

Aliso Viejo, Calif. - Johnny Rockets is partnering with foodservice consulting group EMPAD to support purchasing and distribution for the brand's U.S. restaurants. As part of the relationship, EMPAD will assist Johnny Rockets with distributor pricing verification, analysis, sourcing and more to improve the supply chain process for the brand's franchise and corporate-owned restaurants.

“Now Trending” is a new exclusive online series to chainstoreage.com, featuring trending topics that impact the retail real estate landscape.

As revitalized urban spaces continue to flourish in cities across the country, the concept of co-working spaces has gained considerable traction. The growing popularity of this new workspace arrangement is more than just another piece of the urban puzzle, it is one of the driving forces helping to shape a new generation of emerging urban landscapes.