Strategy

New York -- American Apparel Inc. announced  four new directors to its board, including the company’s first-ever female board member, Colleen Brown, a former CEO of Fisher Communications, and former Walgreens executive Joseph Magnacca, who took the reins as CEO of RadioShack last year.  

The other new directors are  David Glazek, a partner with hedge fund Standard General, which holds a nearly 44% stake in American Apparel, and Thomas J. Sullivan, a director of Media General.

Dallas -- Corner Bakery Café has implemented Altametrics' E-Restaurant and E-SmartClock solutions to improve labor, food, human resources and administrative costs at all of its cafes, with full launch beginning in August. After a three-month test in 10 company-owned stores, Corner Bakery Cafe implemented ESmartClock technology, which features an easy-to-use touch-screen and provides real-time visibility, monitoring and alerting of critical labor elements such as proactive notification of an employee approaching overtime.

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens announced that  Kermit Crawford, president of  pharmacy, health and wellness, will retire, effective Dec. 31, after 31 years with the company. Crawford plans to join the University of Southern California’s School of Pharmacy, where will serve as executive in residence and senior adviser to the Dean. He also will serve as a senior counselor to Walgreens president and CEO Greg Wasson.



Clearwater, Fla. – MarineMax reported net income of $11.5 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, down 16% from $13.63 million a year earlier. A substantial increase in selling, general and administrative expenses drove the net income decrease.

Marinemax fared better in revenue, which grew approximately 22% to $214.4 million for the quarter compared with $175.8 million for the comparable quarter the prior year. Same-store sales increased approximately 22%.

Whirlpool Corporation reported net sales of about $4.7 billion in the second quarter of 2014, virtually unchanged from the company's performance in the same quarter last year.

Net sales for the three months ended June 30 totaled $4.68 billion, down 1.4% from $4.75 billion in 2013.

The company's bottom line read $179 million for the quarter, down from $198 million in the second quarter of last year.

Cincinnati -- Macy’s reported a series of new initiatives in its multi-year strategic program to enhance environmental sustainability, including a plan to begin replacing fluorescent fixtures in its store with LEDs.

New York -- Target Corp. on Sunday, July 27, will unveil its small-store format, TargetExpress, in Minneapolis.

The 20,000-sq.-ft. store is located on the street level on an apartment building near the University of Minnesota campus and is also close to the retailer’s headquarters.  

Seattle – Starbucks is opening three new stores in Hanoi, Vietnam. The stores will add to Starbucks’ established Vietnam presence of eight stores in Ho Chi Minh City.

Starbucks opened the first of the three stores on July 23. All three will be located near shopping malls or office buildings. Starbucks is not publicly saying how many stores in Vietnam it ultimately plans to open. The company first entered the Vietnamese market in 2013.