Strategy

Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Dress for Less will open a new store in Colorado on Oct. 11. The store is located in Prairie Center in the community of Brighton, eight miles northwest of Denver.

This new opening is part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.

Carle Place, N.Y. -- 1-800-Flowers.com announced the closing of its acquisition of Harry & David Holdings, a specialty retailer and producer of branded premium gift-quality fruit, gourmet food products and other gifts.

“This combination will propel our total annual revenues to more than $1.1 billion and offers numerous opportunities to accelerate our top and bottom-line growth going forward,” said Jim McCann, CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com.

Hy-Vee is looking to improve operations and reduce shrink, and to that end, will be deploying Agilence’s Retail 20/20 exception reporting tool.  

"While looking for a solution we were keen on finding one that could help us improve our in-store operations, while also making exception reporting a priority," said Darren Baty, SVP and chief information officer, Hy-Vee. "After seeing Retail 20/20 in action it became clear that we would be able to reduce shrink and improve our front end with this tool."

Fort Mill, S.C. -- The security of credit and debit card information is a bigger concern for consumers (93%) than their health (84%), retirement savings (81%) or losing their cell phone (63%), according to a new consumer trust survey from Honeywell. 

Dublin, Calif. - Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in North Florida on Oct. 11. The stores are located in the Lakeland Park Center in Lakeland and Forest Lakes Plaza in Oldsmar.  

These new openings are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.

Plano, Texas - Rent-A-Center Inc. has named Jana Kelly to VP of inventory management. Reporting to John Butler, senior VP, supply chain, Kelly will lead the forecasting, inventory planning, allocation and replenishment of all domestic store products.

Kelly brings more than 14 years of experience in inventory-management leadership, most recently at MetroPCS Communications, where she led the mobile device supply chain strategy.

Tractor Supply Co. plans to open two pet-focused stores under the new “HomeTown Pet” brand.

The new pet supply retail concepts operated by Tractor Supply Company will open in mid-November in Franklin and Fairview, cities within close proximity to the company’s headquarters.

Seattle - Starbucks Corp. opens its first community store in Korea, located in the Daehakro neighborhood of Seoul, on Oct. 1. Thirty cents from every purchase at this store will go to Green Umbrella ChildFund Korea (GUCFK) to directly support lifelong skills development for youth through the Starbucks Comprehensive Youth Leadership Program.