Corporate Governance

The wealthiest segment of the U.S. population is cutting back a little this holiday season.      

Hull Property Group plans to move slowly in remaking the Kingsport Town Center, delaying the recruitment of new tenants until it can re-establish the 40-year-old mall as a popular destination for shoppers.  

For the past five years, retailers and millennials have been in a very one-sided relationship.    Big budgets were spent to capture and engage with this highly sought-after group of consumers through intelligent advertising, a carefully curated social media presence, and viral marketing campaigns. And in true millennial fashion, the response was indifferent.    But retailers, it’s no longer all about millennials.   

CBL announced it has closed on a sale of three Tier 3 malls to Hull Property Group for a price of $32.25 million. Changing hands are the Randolph Mall in Asheboro, North Carolina, and the Regency Mall in Racine, Wisconsin.    The identity of the third property was not disclosed.  

Land’s End has appointed a seasoned fashion and luggage veteran as its next chief executive.    The apparel retailer named Jerome Griffith to be its next CEO, effective March 6, 2017. Griffith most recently served as president and CEO of upscale luggage brand Tumi Holdings from 2009 until its sale in August 2016 to Samsonite International. He will also join the Lands’ End board of directors.  

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. is being accused of shorting the wages of employees by not paying them for overtime.   The class action lawsuit, filed in New Jersey’s Middlesex County Superior Court, accuses the home goods retailer of violating the state’s Wage and Hour Law by not paying some of its employees time-and-a-half for hours worked over 40 hours.   

The union that represents cargo pilots who fly Amazon goods has launched online ads that warn staffing problems could lead to delayed deliveries.       The ads, set to run on Facebook and Google, link to a site called “Can Amazon Deliver?” that outlines alleged staffing issues at two cargo airlines from which Amazon leases planes, reported ReCode.  

For more than half a century, Chain Store Age’s annual SPECS conference has delivered one of the retail industry’s most important and impactful events.   

Logistics and supply chain executives from such retail powerhouses as Walmart, Target, Hudson’s Bay Company,  7-Eleven, Neiman Marcus, and The Home Depot will be among the speakers at the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s annual Retail Supply Chain Conference.

The Kroger Co. is offering early retirement to approximately 2,000 corporate employees.   The offer does not include store and district associates, senior officers, and supermarket division presidents.  It is part of the chain’s effort to lower expenses without directly impacting shoppers.