Strategy

NEW YORK — Gilt Groupe announced that it has named Jason Goldberger as general manager of Gilt Home. In this role, Goldberger will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the home business, including business strategy, merchandise and site development. Goldberger will report to Susan Lyne, chairman of Gilt Groupe.

LAS VEGAS — Pacific Entertainment, creators of the Baby Genius brand of musical edu-tainment for infants and toddlers, announced that Alfred Kahn will join the company as an exclusive consultant in the children's preschool and education markets. 

New York City -- Wal-Mart Stores is ramping up the opening of its mid-sized Neighborhood Market format, which is being renamed Walmart Market, said  Bill Simon, president and CEO, Walmart U.S., on Wednesday at the William Blair & Co. Growth Stock Conference in Chicago.

The Market stores, which average around 42,000 sq. ft., are delivering returns on the same level as supercenters, Simon said, and can be approved and built in less time.

New York City -- Ron Johnson’s decision to leave Apple, where he serves as senior VP of retail, to take the reins of J.C. Penney Co. leaves the tech giant without a retail chief as it begins to ramp up its international expansion.

Apple plans to open 40 stores this fiscal year, with almost three-quarters of them outside the United States, the company announced in April. A big growth area is Asia.
Apple has said very little with regards to its plans to replace Johnson.

Dallas -- Neiman Marcus has named former Williams-Sonoma executive John E. Koryl as president of its website and catalog division, Neiman Marcus Direct.

Koryl, 40, succeeds Gerald Barnes, who will become executive VP and chief merchant of Neiman Marcus Direct, which operates websites under NeimanMarcus.com, BergdorfGoodman.com, LastCall.com, Cusp.com and Horchow.com. The division also produces more than 80 catalogs annually for the Neiman Marcus and Horchow brands.

MINNEAPOLIS — Best Buy reported Tuesday that net income for the first quarter fell 12% to $136 million, or 35 cents per diluted share, hurt by increased promotions and lower demand for such items as flat-panel televisions and digital cameras. But strong showings in China, mobile phone sales and online performance pushed helped to boost profit and revenue past analyst estimates.

PLANO, Texas — Things just got a whole lot more interesting in the mid-tier department store space now that JCPenney has hired former Apple executive Ron Johnson to be its CEO. Johnson is a former Target merchandising executive who for the past 11 years oversaw the growth of Apple’s wildly successful and widely heralded retail operation.

DALLAS — Karen Katz, president and CEO of Neiman Marcus announced that John E. Koryl will be joining the company, June 20, as president of Neiman Marcus Direct. Koryl succeeds Gerald Barnes, who will become EVP, chief merchant Neiman Marcus Direct.

Koryl, 40, joins Neiman Marcus from Williams-Sonoma where he was the SVP e-commerce marketing and analytics. Prior to Williams-Sonoma, Koryl was senior director marketing solutions at eBay and has worked at UmbrellaBank, Creditland.com, and Accenture.

WASHINGTON — Retail spending for the month of May experienced a slight drop of 0.2% to $387.1 billion, though the advanced estimates noted that May sales were 7.7% higher than the year-ago period, the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday.

The government agency also reported that total sales for the March through May period were up 7.5% from the same period a year ago.

RYE, N.Y. — Jarden Corp., a manufacturer of a variety of branded consumer products, announced that James Lillie was named CEO effective immediately.  Martin Franklin, formerly chairman and CEO of Jarden Corp., will serve as executive chairman, overseeing corporate strategy, including growth initiatives, corporate culture and philosophy.