Strategy

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid has appointed Susan Henderson as SVP and chief communications officer to replace Karen Rugen, who retired last month, the retail pharmacy chain said Monday.

Henderson will be responsible for all aspects of corporate communications, including media relations, financial communications, issues management, associate and supplier communications and the company's charity initiatives, reporting to president and CEO John Standley.

SAN MATEO, Calif. — Sam's Club has engaged the services of DemandTec to enhance its eValues program.

Sam's Club said it will use DemandTec's Deal Management service to streamline the collaborative presentation, negotiation, reconciliation, and archiving of member offers and supporting supplier funds for the eValues program.  

DemandTec is working in conjunction with FICO, provider of the eValues program, to integrate Deal Management, streamline the process, and deliver highly targeted, timely offers to members of Sam's Club.  

MINNEAPOLIS — Best Buy Co.’s Best Buy Express plans to add nearly 100 kiosk locations in the next year spread over a variety of new channels.

The division has opened 150 Express locations in three years, and said it is adding two locations at Downtown Disney District in Anaheim, Calif., and multiple locations at college campuses, events and ferry hubs this year.

Strength in the apparel category continued at Target during July, with same-store sales increasing just below the company average of 4.1%, positioning the company as a winner in a month where performance among competitors was uneven.

A slew of retailers are scheduled to report second-quarter earnings in the coming weeks and among the more highly anticipated reports are results from Walmart and Target. 

Walmart is due up first on Aug. 16 followed by Target on Aug. 17.

The nation’s retailers can hope back-to-school shoppers haven’t been paying attention to the steady dose of dire economic news facing the nation the past week, but that’s pretty unlikely considering this is the information age.

Target produced another month of solid same-store sales growth in July and had a lot of good things to say about its future prospects. But judging from the action in the company’s share price in the intervening days, it was as if second-quarter earnings per share had come in well short of analysts’ expectations. Target got caught up in the selling free-for-all that occurred on Friday when it appeared the United States was in for a credit rating downgrade followed by a further acceleration on Monday after the downgrade occurred.

New York City -- Sam’s Club has selected DemandTec’s Deal Management software service to enhance its eValues program.

New York City -- In his most recent column “Retail Rap with Jeff Green,” Chain Store Age columnist Green challenges the advent of outlet centers, questioning whether there are enough viable outlet center markets to support the growing number of developers who are plugging into the shopping center format.

Click here to read Green’s column.

It seems like everybody wants to get in the outlet business these days. In particular, there are a growing number of “traditional mall” developers that seem to be seriously considering -- or in some cases, actively pursuing -- the development of outlet centers or the conversion of existing traditional mall assets into outlets. On the heels of Gap’s announcement to close 200 of their full-price stores by 2013 and concentrate on expanding their Gap outlets and Banana Republic Factory Stores, I understand why developers are seriously thinking about outlet centers.