Corporate Governance

It’s officially fall and, for retailers, this means holiday shopping season is right around the corner. For most, the season is marked by increased sales, both on and offline, and an opportunity to tap the highly profitable demographic of holiday shoppers. Likewise, it’s a chance for merchants to explore new markets and test new locations for possible retail site development.

Target Corp. has become the first major credit card issuer to convert to cards with PINS, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. The new cards will be MasterCards and will contain computer chips as well as PINs.

Eight start-up companies comprising the inaugural class of the newly formed XRC Labs accelerator are looking to have a big impact on the retail industry.

New York-based XRC Labs unveiled the inaugural class of start-up companies participating in its 10-week accelerator program Tuesday evening, Oct. 13 at an event near its headquarters at the Parsons Schools of Design.

Whole Foods is creating a new collection of business applications with a key technology partner that are said to be unlike anything on the market.

That’s a bold claim and to back it up the nation’s leading organic and natural grocery chain is partnering with cloud-based business application provider Infor to develop a new enterprise platform called Infor Cloudsuite Retail.

One of the world’s largest C-store operators is searching for a new CFO as the company expands its reach in the southern United States with a deal to buy 18 convenience stores operating under the Texas Star brand.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. announced that Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Raymond Paré has resigned. It also announced a deal to acquire 18 convenience stores in the Souhwest, which will be converted to the Circle K brand and will continue to sell Shell and CITGO-branded fuel. The deal is expected to close by next April.

The latest retail data breach demonstrates that hackers will victimize whoever is vulnerable.

America’s Thrift Stores, an Alabama-based, 18-store for-profit chain that sells donated items and then contributes a significant portion of the profit to local charities, has been breached, Hackers used malware to compromise the systems of a third-party service provider, which gave them access to the America’s Thrift Stores network.

Top marketers at Neiman Marcus and Home depot were among a group of marketing executives recognized by the CMO Club this week.

The CMO Club, established to celebrate the marketing industry's brightest leaders and to provide a forum to share their successes with other CMOs, determined four winners in various categories.

Dollar General is rightsizing its expense structure by eliminating several hundred positions at its home office.

The Retail Design Institute, the oldest and largest association for design professionals, and Chain Store Age, the leading authority on retail operations and producer of the annual SPECS conference, are partnering on the Institute’s 45th Annual International Store Design Competition.

Curt Garner, who first announced he would leave his current role as CIO of Starbucks Corp. in June, has revealed his next professional stop.

Garner will join Chipotle Mexican Grill as CIO effective Nov. 23, and become the company’s first executive with that title. Chipotle appears to want to duplicate some of the IT-related success Starbucks has had in areas such as store operations and customer experience.