Corporate Governance

ATLANTA — The Home Depot has named Mark Vadon to its board of directors. Vadon will be a member of the audit and finance committees. His appointment gives the company 11 directors, 10 of whom are independent.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart is getting ready for the increased demand on its stores during the holiday shopping season by offering more hours to its existing associates and hiring more than 50,000 seasonal associates.

"The holidays are a special time of the year for everyone, and we are ready to help customers have a great shopping experience at Walmart—whether they are looking for the perfect gift or are stocking up for a memorable holiday meal," said Gisel Ruiz, EVP and COO Walmart U.S.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Limited Brands has announced the appointments of Michael Morris and Dr. Gordon Gee to its board of directors.

When temperatures turn cooler this fall New Yorker’s will have a new Burlington Coat Factory store to satisfy their need for outerwear.

The national off-price chain and operator of 482 stores opened its newest unit in New York’s Union Square on Friday. The 92,000-sq.-ft store is located at 14th Street and University Place is the company’s sixth New York location, which means Manhattan residents are already familiar with the Burlington, NJ-based company.

Amazon.com, Trader Joe’s and Costco Wholesale Corp. came out on top with consumers in a survey by global consulting firm OC&C Strategy Consultants. Rounding out the top five were Zappos and iTunes.

For many retail brands, Chapter 11 is not always the end of the story. Just consider the sequel being crafted by home furnishings retailer Bombay Company, which was founded in 1978 as a mail-order operation and grew to a national presence with 461 stores before filing for bankruptcy in late 2007 and closing all its U.S. locations.

Abercrombie & Fitch understands that the key to international branding is to deliver a consistent store experience across the globe.

By adopting an open operating platform and integrated point-of-sale infrastructure, the company is able to centrally manage all business operations, including supply chain, inventory management and POS processing, across international borders. The retailer’s international stores now garner close to $1 billion in sales.

Seasonal, temporary and pop-up retailers have an added challenge this year. As of March, any retail space constructed or altered must meet the Department of Justice’s latest ADA requirements and the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design.

That applies to all new retail construction and any alterations to retail spaces; and if an existing facility is used, then retailers must conduct “readily achievable barrier removal.”

Brookshire Brothers has launched a comprehensive lighting update involving in-store, parking lot, exterior signage and refrigerated case fixtures.

Using a combination of new linear fluorescent lighting and LED technologies — from GE Lighting, East Cleveland, Ohio — Brookshire Brothers will reduce its annual operating costs more than $235,000. The relamping has eliminated more than 3.8 million lbs. of CO2 emissions, with a reduction of 2.4 million kilowatt hours (kWhs) in electricity use.

Starbucks Coffee Company is participating in a pilot project designed to encourage employees to identify strategies that will reduce the amount of energy required to run the stores while not impacting customer service.