Strategy

Woonsocket, R.I. -- CVS Caremark released its 2010 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, which provides an overview of the company's commitments to environmental stewardship, improving patient health outcomes, ensuring its continued status as an employer of choice, and positively impacting people's lives through its social investments.

SAN FRANCISCO and DULUTH, Minn. — DemandTec, an optimization network for retailers and consumer products companies, announced that it has partnered with the Labovitz School of Business & Economics at the University of Minnesota Duluth to support the university's new program training students with skills for careers in the retail and consumer products industries.

New York City -- CVS Caremark Corp. is disclosing another government inquiry into its business, as the company said the Securities and Exchange Commission has requested documents related to its Caremark pharmacy benefits management unit, the Associated Press reported.

The company said it received a subpoena from the SEC on Feb. 28.

The agency asked for corporate records on several issues, including public disclosures in 2009 related to pharmacy benefits management and its Medicare Part D prescription-drug benefit businesses.

Projections calling for a low-to-mid single-digit comp increase at Target during May don’t sound overly aggressive, but when factoring in some of the economic headwinds and uncertainties facing the U.S. economy, the sales plan begins to sound more ambitious.

Consumers are dealing with higher fuel prices, food inflation and lingering unemployment. Where $4 a gallon gas prices are headed next is big unknown, but it is only May and historically prices increase during the summer. Ouch!

Delinquency trends in Target’s credit card portfolio just keep getting better. During April, the percentage of accounts 60 or 90 days past due sank to their lowest level of the past three years. Only 2.4% of accounts were 90 days past due during April, compared with 2.6% in March and 2.9% in February. Throughout most of 2009 and early 2010, the 90-day delinquency rates was above 4% and approached 5% at times.

Boulder, Col. -- Sunflower Farmers Market appointed Chris S. Sherrell as its CEO, the natural grocery chain announced Friday. He has worked with Sunflower since its inception in 2002 and most recently served as the company's president and COO.

Sherrell has served as the acting CEO since the middle of February, shortly after Michael Gilliland, the company's founder and then-CEO, was arrested in Phoenix following a prostitution sting operated by undercover Phoenix Police Department officers.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill.  — Sears announced that it is launching its fourth annual Heroes at Home spring renovation campaign with Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit working to preserve affordable homeownership. Sears said that with the help of Rebuilding Together, it expects to renovate more than 300 homes across the country as part of the Heroes at Home program, which aims to improve American military families' lives by making necessary repairs, improvements or modifications to their homes.

As thousands of retailers and shopping center owners and managers prepare to descend on Las Vegas for the International Council of Shopping Centers’ 2012 RECon conference May 22-25, we thought it appropriate to talk with a retail real estate expert about not only the state of the industry, but also what to expect from this year’s show. 

Senior editor Katherine Field talked with Mitchel S. Friedman, senior VP of New York City-based RCS Real Estate Advisors, to gain his insights about the show and the industry as a whole.