Corporate Governance

Seattle – Starbucks Coffee Co. is increasing the pay and relaxing the dress code of its U.S. store employees to allow for tattoos and other forms of self-expression to show.  

Washington, D.C. -- September retail sales, excluding automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants, decreased 0.1% seasonally adjusted month-to-month yet increased 4.6% unadjusted year-over-year. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), seasonal factors played a role, but the drop-off from August was worse than expected.  

New York -- At least 47% of U.S. merchant terminals will be enabled for EMV chip technology by the end of 2015, according to the Payments Security Task Force (PST). The estimates are based on forecasts provided by acquirers representing approximately 80% of U.S. purchase volume.  

Dublin, Calif. -- Epicor Software Corp., a provider of business software solutions for retail, manufacturing and distribution, has been named the number one vendor of POS software among the 200 leading specialty soft goods retailers and hard goods retailers for the fourth consecutive year in studies published by global research and advisory firm IHL Group. Epicor also was named a leader in the fast growing North American mobile POS software market, according to another new research report from IHL Group.

Kyle Marchesseault was named director of marketing at Blueport Commerce, a company that describes itself as the omnichannel solution for the $78 billion furniture industry.

Philadelphia –- Urban Outfitters Inc. is warning that continued negative same-store sales in the third quarter of fiscal 2014 may have an impact on quarterly earnings. The specialty apparel chain said declining same-store sales could deleverage gross profit margin for the third quarter at a rate greater than during the first half of the year, leading to dampened profits.  

Matthew Youngs, president of Ralph Lauren Childrenswear and Latin America has been named chairman of the National Father’s Day Committee.

In this new capacity, Youngs will collaborate with Dan Orwig, president and CEO of The Father’s Day/Mother’s Day Council, to oversee and execute the Annual Father of the Year Awards luncheon benefitting Save the Children’s U.S. Programs.

New York, N.Y. -- Savills Studley, a global commercial real estate services firm specializing in tenant representation, announced the promotion of Stephen G. Berliner executive VP & branch sanager, New York Office to executive VP, New York Tri-State Region.