Corporate Governance

Photo: Sonya Gafsi Oblisk    Whole Foods Market named the former VP of marketing for Walmart’s Sam’s Club division as global VP of marketing.  

Shoptalk, the nex-gen retail and e-commerce event, has named Sucharita Mulpuru, as chief retail strategist. The company is also expanding with a new networking program.   

In the lead-up to this year’s holiday season, retailers across the country are already making important preparations in the hopes of increasing sales, improving customer service, and preventing data breaches. This last concern carries with it a heavy price tag; according to a survey from the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of holiday season cyber attacks is $8,000 per minute or nearly half-a-million dollars per hour.   

Aeropostale Inc. will live to see another day after all.    A consortium, including Simon Property Group Inc. General Growth Properties Inc. and Authentic Brands Group, won the bankruptcy auction for Aeropostale Inc. The group, which also includes liquidators Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC and Hilco Merchant Resources LLC,  plans to keep at least 229 of the teen retailer’s stores up and running along with Aeropostale's e-commerce business and  international licensing business.   

Hanjin Shipping Co., the world’s seventh-largest container shipper, is working to ease the potential cargo chaos caused by its bankruptcy filing last week.    The filing rose concerns among some of the nation’s biggest retailers that some merchandise may not arrive in time for the crucial holiday season, blooomberg.com reported.  

Lululemon Athletica Inc. revealed that it plans to open smaller, “local” stores amid results that disappointed Wall Street.   Net revenue for the quarter ended July 31 increased 14% to $514.5 million, just shy of projections, from $453.0 million in the year ago period. Total comparable sales rose 4%, with in-store sales up 3% and direct to consumer sales up 6%.   Net income increased 12.5% to $53.6 million.  

Changing footwear trends took a bite out of Genesco Inc.’s sales in the second quarter.   The company reported net income of $14.6 million, up from a year-earlier profit of $7.5 million.   Genesco’s revenue for the second quarter, ended on July 30, fell 4.6% to a less-than-expected $625.6 million.   Total same-store sales fell 1%, with a 4% decline at the Journeys Group.   

The offices of Chain Store Age will be closed for the Labor Day holiday weekend. We will resume publishing on Sept. 6. The CSA team wishes you and your family a happy and safe holiday.    

To uphold its reputation of providing the fastest possible delivery to its shoppers, Amazon is preparing to open a new fulfillment center in Monee, Ill. This is the third warehouse planned for the suburbs of Chicago.   The 850,000-plus-sq.-ft. facility will facilitate the picking, packing and shipping of small items, such as books, electronics and consumer goods.  

Walmart is eliminating about 7,000 back-office positions at its U.S. stores, with the majority of the cuts in the accounting and invoicing areas.     The move, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, follows a test earlier this summer at 500 stores in the West to cut three administrative accounting and invoicing jobs at each store.