Events

PLANO, Texas — JCPenney and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the nation's first and largest non-profit, nonpartisan organization for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, announced that they are joining forces to provide America's newest generation of military veterans with more than $1 million in apparel and footwear to start new civilian wardrobes. 

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Fresh & Easy will kick off its annual in-store holiday food drive across all of its stores next month in honor of National Food Bank Week.

From mid-November trough Dec. 31, customers can donate canned and boxed goods in specially designated boxes at Fresh & Easy stores in Arizona, California and Nevada.

Last holiday season, the retailer and its customers donated more than $1 million in food to local food banks and charities.

Under most circumstances, Walmart and Target are like oil and water, but when the issue is fighting retail crime even fierce competitors see the wisdom of coming together to battle a common enemy.

Such is the case with retail theft, and earlier this week the Retail Industry Leaders Association welcomed a select group of senior level asset protection executives, product manufacturers and academic researchers to the 2011 Asset Protection Leaders Council (APLC) meeting in Minneapolis to launch the APLC’s process driven shrink initiative. 

Walmart’s deeper affiliation with NASCAR continued this week as the good old boys headed to Alabama’s Talladega super speedway for the Good Sam Club 500 where race fans were provided the opportunity to participate in Race Time at Walmart activities.

It looks like there are going to be some unhappy folks in Walmart’s supplier community later today. That’s because there are only a few seats remaining for the Emerging Trends in Retail conference that is organized each fall by the Center for Retail Excellence in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

Sam’s Club home office last week hosted 50 competitive barbecue teams who traveled to Northwest Arkansas for the final round of competition in the inaugural Sam’s Club National BBQ Tour. The event kicked off back in April when teams battled for a spot in the championship, which was sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society.

The winner of the event, TippyCanoe BBQ Crew of St. Ansgar, Iowa, received a cash prize of $35,000, while a total of $400,000 in prize money was awarded to teams throughout the course of the tour.

NEW YORK — eBay announced that it has joined with designer Jonathan Adler to open The eBay Inspiration Shop, a 24/7 shoppable storefront in New York City showcasing a collection of new, must-have merchandise for the fall season. What makes the store unique, according to eBay is that customers can shop for the featured items using their smartphone.

Former Walmart president and CEO Lee Scott was a keynote speaker earlier this week at the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s 74th annual convention and trade show at Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

Promotional materials billed his appearance as an exciting opportunity to hear about the leadership, innovation and business strategies that led Walmart to be such a successful retailer and noted that Scott would also participate in a candid question and answer forum where distributors would have the opportunity to ask some tough questions.