Corporate Governance

AUSTIN, Texas — Mozido, a cloud-based, white-label integrated platform of mobile payments, commerce and marketing, has appointed former senior CorFire executives Steve Bacastow and Charlie Wiggs to its management team.

Mozido enables companies in retail, financial services, consumer packaged goods and telecom to serve consumers, small businesses and global corporate brands with and without bank accounts. Its platform complemented by real-time customer behavior analytics.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Meijer has appointed J. K. Symancyk as president, just one year after he was named COO for the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer.

Meijer, a pioneer of the one-stop shopping concept, operates 199 supercenters and grocery stores throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

MINNEAPOLIS — Winmark Corporation, franchisor of four value-retail store concepts, is developing a new concept focused on reselling women's apparel and accessories.

Winmark Corporation operates 968 franchises under the Plato's Closet, Play It Again Sports, Once Upon A Child and Music Go Round brands, all of which buy, sell, trade and consign gently used merchandise. The franchisor intends to market the new retail concept to savvy and frugal shoppers.

NEW YORK — Despite caution among consumers, retailers wrapped up 2012 with a healthy holiday shopping season, according to a new report by a retailing trade group.

The National Retail Federation said that holiday retail sales increased 3% over the year before, to $579.8 billion. December retail sales increased 0.8% seasonally adjusted from November and 2.1% unadjusted year over year. Nevertheless, the 3% increase was still below the NRF's projected 4.1% growth. Meanwhile, nonstore holiday sales grew 11.1%.

Home Depot and Dollar General are among a total of 23 national brand name retailers that now accept PayPal as payment in their physical stores.

PayPal announced plans to sign up a total of 20 large national retailers by the end of 2012. They closed the year with 23, which means shoppers will have the option of paying for purchases with PayPal at 18,000 physical stores around the United States.

New York -- Walmart plans to significantly boost its sourcing from domestic suppliers over the next decade. The plan was announced during an address by Bill Simon, Walmart U.S. president and CEO, at the National Retail Federation's annual convention in New York. Simon also announced the company is committed to helping part-time associates who want to be full time, make that transition.

New York -- Target is relying on two new services providers to operate its mobile business following an end to its short-lived relationship with RadioShack.

Sidney, Neb. -- Cabela’s Inc. on Tuesday announced plans for two new stores, one in Greenville, S.C., and the other in Woodbury, Minn.

Cabela’s expects to open the Greenville store – its first South Carolina location – in spring 2014. The 100,000-sq.-ft. store will be located in Magnolia Park, a newly redeveloped shopping center.

New York -- Total holiday retail sales increased 3% to $579.8 billion, below the National Retail Federation s projected forecast of 4.1%. Non-store holiday sales grew 11%, below the 12% growth forecast by Shop.org. (The NRF sales figures exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants.)

“For over six months, we’ve been saying that the fiscal cliff and economic uncertainty could impact holiday sales. As the number shows, these issues had a visible impact on consumer spending this holiday season,” said Matthew Shay, CEO, NRF.

New York -- Wal-Mart Stores is set to announce in a Tuesday address at the NRF convention in New York City that it is prepared to hire more than 100,000 veterans over the next five years.

The pledge will come as part of U.S. CEO Bill Simon’s Tuesday keynote address at the 102nd annual BIG Show.

The hiring pledge will begin on Memorial Day, and applies to veterans within 12 months of leaving active duty. Most of the jobs will be in Wal-Mart's stores or its Sam's club locations. Some will be in the company's distribution centers.