Corporate Governance

The Coca-Cola Company’s innovative fountain dispensing platform, Coca-Cola Freestyle, has unveiled three new dispensers that will significantly expand the number of customer locations suited for the technology.

The units offer additional beverage choices, including more low- and no-calorie options, as well as connectivity. The dispensers will be piloted by the end of the year.

London -- British grocery giant Tesco is seeking to improve the customer checkout experience by piloting a new, high-speed retail checkout solution from NCR Corp. at its Tesco Extra 24-hour store in Lincoln, U.K. The solution uses innovative imaging technology from Datalogic that automatically finds the barcode on any side of the product without the need to orient the item on the conveyor belt. It is capable of scanning up to 60 items per minute, greatly speeding the transaction.

While other retailers saw sales affected by a winter that overstayed its welcome, Dillard’s marked its 15th consecutive quarter of positive sales.

Despite weak sales in home and furniture, Dillard’s said sales trends in the first quarter were strongest in the men’s apparel and accessories category and the juniors’ and children’s apparel category followed by ladies’ accessories and lingerie.

New York -- Google announced that it will accept PayPal as a method of payment, in addition to credit cards, carrier billing, and gift cards, for its Play Store. The announcement came as a surprise in that PayPal is essentially a competitor to Google’s own Wallet service.

Walmart’s first quarter sales were not great, but longer term success could be driven by an interesting range of pilot programs and expanding initiatives the company shared during a recap of its results.

Fort Worth, Texas — Rice Management Co. has selected Trademark Property Co. to oversee asset and property management, leasing and repositioning of the village Arcade in the historic Rice Village district of Houston, Texas.

The selection comes after Rice University exercised an option to acquire the leasehold interest in the two-level 195,000-sq.-ft. open-air retail center from the current owner, Weingarten. Closing is set for the third quarter of this year.

Same store sales and operating profits declined at Sam’s Club during the first quarter prompting president and CEO Rosalind Brewer to call the reporting period, “one of our more difficult quarters.”

New York -- From indie favorites to mass-market British brands, here are seven retailers getting ready to make their U.S. brick-and-mortar debut:

1. Nasty Gal