Strategy

I’m not shedding any tears over the demise of Borders and neither is anyone else in the retail industry. It’s just business.

There are always a few sentimental customers who turn up with a choice quote or two in the formulaic media eulogies that appear whenever a retailer goes under, but those customers will just have to find somewhere else to sip coffee and read books for free.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart announced that it is making back-to-school shopping even easier with new store improvements. Back-to-school items are now organized, both in stores and online, in one place and categorized by school age group, so families can quickly and easily shop supplies appropriate for their child’s grade, the company reported. Many of the most common school supply list items are located down the center of the back-to-school aisle allowing families to quickly check these items off their list.

Plano, Texas -- J.C. Penney Co. said Tuesday that its veteran marketing chief Mike Boylson has retired from the company. His successor will be selected by newly minted CEO Ron Johnson in what will be the former Apple executive’s first senior-level appointment at J.C. Penney.

Boylson was with the department store chain for more than three decades, the last eight years as chief marketing officer. He said in June he would retire from the company on July 1, according to a J.C. Penney spokeswoman.

North Plainfield, N.J. -- Results of a survey released Tuesday by shopping center owner Levin Management Corp. showed that, while store sales remain relatively flat, the majority of its retail tenants are optimistic about the balance of 2011.

Cincinnati -- The Kroger Co. said Tuesday that it has promoted Mark Tuffin to president of its Smith’s Division, succeeding the retiring Jim Hallsey.

Tuffin joined Smith's in 1996, and most recently served as VP merchandising. In 2009, he was named VP transition for Kroger.

He will assume responsibilities upon Hallsey's retirement at the end of July.
 

Melville, N.Y. -- DJM Realty, a Gordon Brothers Group company, said Monday it has been retained to exclusively manage the disposition of all remaining Borders Group and Waldenbooks real estate in the United States. The news came after Borders announced it had abandoned hope that the company could be saved from liquidation.

Columbus, Ohio -- Big Lots announced Tuesday that it has completed its acquisition of Brantford, Ontario-based Liquidation World, representing Big Lots’ first foothold outside of the United States.

Closeout retailer Liquidation World currently operates 89 stores in Canada.

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Borders Group, which had been holding out hope that a buyer would come forward to save the company, said late Monday it will seek court approval Thursday for a liquidation led by Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Group.

The bookseller said that, with approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York, it could begin shuttering its 399 remaining stores as early as Friday, and it is expected to go out of business for good by the end of September.

NEW YORK — Global consumer confidence cautiously edged up one index point to 93 in the second quarter as confidence increases in booming Asian markets were offset by European consumers’ growing concerns of an escalating debt crisis, which battered confidence levels in Spain, Italy and France, according to the latest edition of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index. Consumer confidence rose two points in the U.S. in Q2 to 87.

Long-time sporting goods industry executive Norbert Olberz, 86, who founded Sports Chalet in 1959, died of natural causes last Friday the company announced on Sunday.

Olberz served as CEO of Sports Chalet for 40 years until 1999, and he remained as chairman until 2001. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Irene, his sister, Elizabeth Lepper, his son, Eric, and by his grandchildren Karl and Markus.