Corporate Governance

Davenport, Iowa -- Von Maur Department Stores will open its 30th store, at Quail Springs Mall in northern Oklahoma City, on Oct. 18. The split-level, 150,000-sq.-ft. store will be the company's first location in Oklahoma.

Located at the mall's former Sears location, the store will undergo a complete remodel in order to feature Von Maur's signature exterior brick facade, which includes arching entryways accented by copper cupolas.

Dallas -- Corner Bakery Café has implemented Altametrics' E-Restaurant and E-SmartClock solutions to improve labor, food, human resources and administrative costs at all of its cafes, with full launch beginning in August. After a three-month test in 10 company-owned stores, Corner Bakery Cafe implemented ESmartClock technology, which features an easy-to-use touch-screen and provides real-time visibility, monitoring and alerting of critical labor elements such as proactive notification of an employee approaching overtime.

Walgreens president of pharmacy, health and wellness Kermit Crawford is leaving the company after 31 years to take on new opportunities, including continuing to serve as a senior counselor to Walgreens president and CEO Greg Wasson.

Eden Prairie, Minn. – The loss of a large tax benefit caused Supervalu’s net income to plummet 49% in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 to $43 million from $85 million in the year-ago period.

Revenue slipped to $5.23 billion from $5.24 billion.

By Sandy Skrovan, U.S. research director at Planet Retail

St. Louis – Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. reduced its net loss to $4.3 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 from $6.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2013.

Consolidated net sales fell 7.7% to $75.4 million, from $80.4 million. Consolidated same-store sales dropped 4.9%.

Build-A-Bear cited the net closure of 10 stores from the prior year as helping to reduce revenues. CEO Sharon John said the company is poised for a strong second half of the fiscal year.

New York -- Sainsbury’s has entered into a unique arrangement that closes the loop on food recycling. Its store in Cannock, Staffordshire, England, has come off the country’s national power grid for day-to-day electricity consumption and is running on power generated solely from food waste from Sainsbury’s supermarkets across the United Kingdom.

The new power supply was built in partnership with waste recycling company Biffa, and uses Biffa’s advanced anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities and a unique power link up.  

Rite Aid has appointed former Roundy’s executive Darren Karst as EVP and CFO, effective Aug. 20, to succeed Frank Vitrano, who has announced he will retire in Sept. 2015. Karst will report to Rite Aid’s chairman and CEO John Standley.

Karst will be responsible for all aspects of the company’s finance, accounting, treasury, tax, investor relations, legal, risk management, internal assurance and asset protection functions.