Corporate Governance

Amazon.com has been encroaching on Barnes & Noble Education’s collegiate bookstore business with a rapidly expanding network of campus pickup locations, but Barnes & Noble is striking back.
 
Fourteen colleges and universities have selected Barnes & Noble College as their partner of choice to operate their campus bookstores. The 14 new contracts represent 23 new campus and virtual bookstores. The schools represent a projected additional 140,000 students and their faculty.
 

Photo: Andrea Olshan, CEO of Olshan Properties

Rent-to-own retailer Rent-A-Center Inc. has named Angela Yochem to senior VP, IT and CIO.

Yochem’s responsibilities will include developing Rent-A-Center’s IT talent; expanding recently developed technologies; enhancing the company’s web, online and mobile solutions; and providing technology leadership for new opportunities.

Amazon Marketplace sellers may want to run a little leaner this holiday season.

According to Re/Code, Amazon has notified merchants its third-party Marketplace platform will raise its warehouse storage fees during November and December 2016. The e-tail giant experienced profit-damaging storage space shortages during the 2015 holiday season and is trying to avoid a repeat of the problem.
 

Photo: CVS Pharmacy President Helena Foulkes unveiled digital receipts in a surprise appearance on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live on Friday evening.

Grocery giant Supervalu Inc. is one step closer to separating its troubled Save-A-Lot banner.
 
Supevalu, which initially announced it was exploring spinning off Save-A-Lot into a standalone, publicly traded company in July 2015, has completed the amendment of an existing $1.5 billion senior secured term loan agreement. This amendment permits the company and its subsidiaries to undertake certain transactions deemed necessary to enable a spinoff of Save-A-Lot.

ModCloth, a San Francisco-based e-commerce retailer focused on vintage and independent apparel styles, has named Nicholas Genest as CTO.
 
Genest joins ModCloth with more than 15 years' experience across consumer, tech and online retail industries. He most recently served as the CTO for the online luxury consignment retailer The RealReal, where he strategically led the development of their mobile, web and data technologies since 2013.

As the retail landscape continues to evolve in response to an explosion of creativity and innovation from both new and existing brands, this is an exciting and inspiring time to be in the business.