Corporate Governance

NEW YORK — Supermarket chain Stop & Shop will work with Foodshare to sponsor events at its stores in Hartford, Conn., to help qualifying residents access the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit.

About 70% of Connecticut residents who qualify for SNAP, formerly known as the food stamp program, actually receive the benefit, Stop & Shop said. This is because of such issues as language barriers, lack of transportation or lack of knowledge of the program.

Jamie Egasti was named CEO of Catalina Marketing Corp. and will join the firm’s board of directors. Egasti previously served as CEO of The Folgers Coffee Company and president of global snacks and coffee at Procter & Gamble. Egasti replaces Catalina co-founder George Off, who has served as interim CEO and a member of the company’s board of directors since May, 2011.

The NPD signed a point-of-sale cooperation agreement with Sam’s Club, the Wal-Mart Stores division, to receive and analyze sales information from Sam’s Club U.S. clubs and SamsClub.com.

Under the agreement, NPD will receive point-of-sale data from Sam’s Club, increasing NPD’s tracking coverage for clubs and e-commerce and providing its clients with a more robust view of market activity in these channels. NPD will also become Sam’s Club’s primary provider of point-of-sale and consumer panel information in the General Merchandise categories.

Americans spent lots of money on apparel in September, and Target was among the beneficiaries, reporting that the category’s performance exceeded the total company same-store sales increase of 5.3%. Target didn’t elaborate on any key merchandising initiatives that may have influenced the results, such as the launch of the Missoni collection, but it was hardly alone in reporting strong apparel sales.

The relaunch of Target.com did not go as smoothly as the retailer and its customers would have like judging from the persistent backlash a month and a half after the site went live. Ad Age piled on last week with a piece about how friction between marketing and technology teams contributed to a wide range of functionality and customer service issues.

The departure last week of Target chief marketing officer and spearhead of the retailer’s entry into Canada, Michael Francis, was a significant development in the retail world, but someone forgot to tell the company’s suppliers.

It is still very early in the holiday season and anything could happen from a pricing perspective. However, with that as a caveat, it appears Target and Walmart are in a virtual dead heat when it comes to toy pricing, according to a survey by Citigroup’s senior retail analyst Deb Weinswig.

How good was the 5.3% same-store sales increase Target reported for September? We know it was toward the upper end of the company’s official guidance that called for a low to mid single-digit gain, but according to Richard Hastings with Global Hunter Securities it was the company’s best showing in September since 2006.

New York City -- Vacancies at U.S. regional shopping malls rose to 9.4% in the third quarter (ended Sept. 30), according to property-research firm Reis, Reuters reported. It represents the highest level since Reis began publishing the data in 2000, and was up from 9.3% in the second quarter.

Landlords' asking mall rents rose to $38.81 per square foot in the third quarter, up from $38.77 in the previous three months and $38.72 a year earlier, according to Reis.

New York City -- Bloomingdale’s 520,000-sq.-ft. Manhattan flagship is undergoing a 100,000-sq.-ft. renovation, Women’s Wear Daily reported, with bridge, contemporary, home, shoes, fine jewelry and parts of the designer floor included in the remodel.

The project is estimated to cost $50 million, according to Women’s Wear Daily.