Corporate Governance

Staples’ business division is using a mobile app to help customers visualize site assessments.  

Walmart is expanding its mobile payment options.   Walmart will accept Chase Pay on Walmart.com, through the Walmart mobile app, and in its stores through the app’s Walmart Pay feature. The digital payment solution allows shoppers to make secure digital payments in-store and online while earning rewards and receiving offers. Chase Pay also protects the customer through token technology, which utilizes one-time complex codes to process transactions and keep credit and debit card information secure.  

That was fast.   Anne Dament, senior VP of grocery merchandising for Target Corp., is leaving the chain, after less than 18 months on the job. Her last day will be Nov. 18.   Damen’s exit will mark the third high-level executive departure at Target in less than three months. In August, the chain’s chief marketing officer, Jeff Jones, resigned to join Uber. And in September, chief digital officer Jason Goldberger left.    

Petco will celebrate the grand opening of nine new stores nationwide in November and December.   The openings are in keeping with the company’s fast-paced 2016 growth plan, which includes 63 new Petco stores and one new Unleashed by Petco store year-to-date.   In addition to the nine new locations, Petco will also celebrate the grand reopening of a relocated store in Kettering, Ohio.  

The CFO of Gap Inc. is leaving the company after serving in the role for nearly a decade.   The retailer announced that executive VP and CFO Sabrina Simmons is leaving. She will remain through the end of the company’s 2016 fiscal year, "ensuring a seamless transition over the coming months."  

Because of the tone and tenor of the presidential campaign, lots of folks might be surprised to learn there are many other significant races going on across the country. These so-called “down-ballot” elections for governors’ offices, U.S. House and Senate seats, state legislatures and other offices may hold the real clues for what the next four years entail for employers, no matter who wins the White House. Believe it or not, there are substantive candidates actually discussing substantive kitchen table issues that impact families and communities.

Architectural firm P+R Architects (Perkowitz + Ruth Architects), based in Long Beach, California, has changed its name to Retail Design Collaborative.   

Party City has nabbed a 22-year retail veteran to head up its retail operations.   Party City Holdco Inc. announced that Ryan Vero has joined the company as executive VP of PCHI and president of Party City retail group. Vero, who will have full responsibility for all of Party City’s North American retail operations, including some 900 brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce, recently served as president, grocery and drugstore at Sears Holdings.     

Finish Line Inc. is searching for a buyer for its JackRabbit chain of running-shoe stores, Bloomberg reported.  

After U.S. payment networks implemented a liability shift in October 2015, merchants that did not support EMV became liable for chargebacks from credit card fraud. Many merchants have evaluated their risk based on chargeback history, and some were surprised by their post-shift fraud volume. This gave rise in the industry to various rumors, misinformation and theories about the cause of this change in fraud volume.