Corporate Governance

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Retailers’ strides toward satisfying their customers was the subject of a survey conducted by CFI Group, which found that retailers' physical store and online presence were meeting consumer expectations, but store associates, price and checkout are areas needing improvement.

New York -- Target Corp. will follow the lead of several other retailers, including Walmart, and allow shoppers to pick up select goods ordered online in its stores, the Star Tribune reported.

Target will introduce the service, referred to as Buy Online, Pick Up in Store (BOPS), in its hometown Minneapolis market and then expand it to all of its U.S. stores by Black Friday, according to the report.

San Francisco -- Brooks Brothers has opened its second largest store in North America, a 26,000-sq.-ft. flagship in San Francisco’s Union Square. 

The interior takes inspiration from Brooks Brothers’ nearly 100-year-old flagship at 346 Madison Avenue in New York City. In keeping with the atmosphere of the New York space, the first floor of the new store is covered in pale cherry wood. The women’s floor is accented with clean white paneling and marble floors. The mezzanine holds the Red Fleece label for men and women.

San Jose, Calif. -- Togo's Eateries announced the signing of two multi-unit franchise agreements with an existing franchise group to develop 20 new restaurants in Oregon and California over the next several years.

Togo's franchisee Mark Fischer will open 10 restaurants in Portland, Ore., and 10 additional locations in Los Angeles County, with the first location scheduled to open in Portland, Ore. in first quarter 2014.

This new development is part of the chain’s plan to grow the brand to 400 restaurants along the West Coast.

New York -- Accenture and SAP AG are jointly releasing a new application called the Marketing Performance Solution by Accenture and SAP. Sold by Accenture, the solution enables retail chief marketing officers (CMOs) view and act on centralized key marketing performance data such as sales figures, media spend and social reach in near real-time.

Seattle -- Nordstrom plans to Nordstrom Rack at Riverside Plaza in Riverside, Calif. The approximately 45,000-sq.-ft. store will be the Rack's first location in Riverside County when it opens in spring 2014.

Riverside Plaza is owned and managed by Vestar.

"We are excited to have Nordstrom Rack as a tenant at Riverside Plaza," said Jeff Axtell, Vestar VP of acquisitions and development. "Nordstrom Rack is a premier retailer who will be a great complement to our existing tenants."

Memphis -- Perkins Restaurant & Bakery announced a six-unit franchise development agreement in Iowa and Nebraska over the next six years.  

The expanded development of the Iowa/Nebraska area was signed with Perkins franchisee CyHawk Hospitality Inc., which operates six Perkins Restaurants and Bakeries — five in Iowa and another in Independence, Mo.  
 
The first of the six additional units opened in July in Ankeny, Iowa, to be followed by a location in Norfolk, Neb., slated to open in September.

Columbus, Ohio -- Fitch announced that Gina Noda has joined the company as business development director. She previously served as director of business development for Sargenti Architects, and prior to that spent 15 years at Scorpio Construction as director of marketing.

Based in the New York City area, Noda will be responsible for expanding Fitch’s presence on the East Coast, as well as across the country.

Small businesses have long been a core customer group at Sam’s Club, so much so that at one point the retailer’s tag line was, “in business for small business.” It makes sense then that Sam’s would invest in a program that promotes entrepreneurship and for that the nation should be thankful.

The husband of a woman who died following a bizarre series of developments precipitated by a shopping trip to Walmart is pursuing an even more bizarre lawsuit alleging the retailer and its manufacturer of plastic bags are at fault.