Strategy

Woonsocket, R.I. -- MinuteClinic said Tuesday that it has opened two walk-in medical clinics inside CVS/pharmacy stores in Savannah and Richmond Hill, Ga.

They are the first retail medical clinics to open in the Savannah region and join 31 other MinuteClinic locations in Georgia situated throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Dallas -- SRS Real Estate Partners announced the hiring of Brandon L. Singer as a first VP in the New York office.

Singer will join SRS’ newly formed SRS Urban team, which consists of seasoned retail specialists focused on major urban retail markets in the United States. In the Metro New York market, he will help lead the SRS Urban push into landlord services and investment sales.

Singer was most recently a senior director at Robert K. Futterman and Associates. 

Wayne, N.J. — Ahead of the holiday season, Toys"R"Us announced that it will expand its layaway program and incorporate flexible payment options in order to spur holiday sales. The retailer is offering its layaway service along with Bill Me Later to enable customers to complete purchase through a series of smaller payments over time.

Toys"R"Us introduced layaway in 2009 for such big-ticket items as bicycles and swing sets and on Oct. 15 will expand the program to include playthings in 450 of its 600 stores.

New York City -- Centro Properties Group US announced it has officially changed its name to Brixmor Property Group, Inc., effective immediately. 

The name change follows the acquisition of the company in June by an affiliate of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI L.P. 

Brixmor is the second largest owner of community and neighborhood shopping centers in the United States with 585 properties aggregating approximately 92 million sq. ft.

The revelation this week that Target chief marketing officer Michael Francis had jumped ship to become president at JCPenney was a surprising development that sucked some of the oxygen out of the retailer’s Minneapolis headquarters. Target is all about marketing and Francis was instrumental in shaping some of the most interesting customer communications the marketing world saw during the past decade. He was so highly thought of that earlier this year he was tapped to lead Target’s entry into Canada, arguably the company’s most significant longer term growth driver.

Cincinnati -- Most consumers hold strong positive attitudes on the quality of service they receive from U.S. businesses, according to new research from customer relationship management company Convergys Corporation.  Among the top findings of the research: nearly nine out of 10 consumers believe that service improved or stayed the same over the past year, and an impressive seven out of 10 say they were either “extremely” or “very” satisfied with their most recent service experience.

LOS ANGELES — Les Hamilton, who most recently managed the Target account for all over-the-counter products for The Emerson Group, has been named VP Sales at Hyland, another OTC manucturer.  In his new role, Hamilton will be responsible for guiding the company’s sales organization and developing and implementing sales strategy.

Seattle -- Starbucks Coffee Company is teaming up with the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN)  to launch a “Create Jobs for USA” fund. 

Starting Nov.1, the new initiative will pool donations from Starbucks customers, partners (employees) and citizens into a nationwide fund for community business lending. One-hundred percent of the donations will go toward loans for firms and organizations that can add jobs or stem job losses, Starbucks said.