Legislative, Regulatory & Legal

Aeropostale, Disney Store, Pacific Sun, and Zumiez joined the growing list of retailers that have stopped using the controversial practice of on-call scheduling for store employees.   

Walgreens Boots Alliance and Rite Aid have entered into an agreement to sell 865 Rite Aid stores and certain assets related to store operations to Fred’s for $950 million.   The transaction is subject to Federal Trade Commission approval, the approval and completion of the pending acquisition of Rite Aid by Walgreens Boots Alliance, and other customary closing conditions.  

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. is being accused of shorting the wages of employees by not paying them for overtime.   The class action lawsuit, filed in New Jersey’s Middlesex County Superior Court, accuses the home goods retailer of violating the state’s Wage and Hour Law by not paying some of its employees time-and-a-half for hours worked over 40 hours.   

Gracious Home has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, its second filing in six years.   In its filing, the 53-year-old retailer, which operates stores in New York City, said “there is a viable business remaining, albeit on a smaller scale.”   Gracious Home previously filed for Chapter in August 2010, citing a sales decline due to the 2008 financial crisis.   

With most of the business community absorbed in the quadrennial D.C. parlor game of parsing cabinet picks and what they might mean for their industry's agenda going forward, little attention has been paid to what lies ahead for the labor community.  

American Apparel witnessed a bright light in its ongoing financial saga.   The beleaguered specialty retailer has court approval to use the remainder of its $30 million bankruptcy loan. American Apparel filed Chapter 11 in November, its second filing in 15 months.   

A mall owner in Springfield, Missouri, has asked the town council to declare the area surrounding his site blighted and charge a tax to go towards improvements to his property.   Curtis Jared told town administrators that sprucing up his Brentwood Shopping Center would create more jobs and tax revenue, according to local radio station KTTS. He wants them to form a community improvement district allowing a one-cent increase in the local sales tax.  

Town administrators in Newnan, Georgia, have proposed offering incentives to owners of local shopping centers to re-invigorate them.   Municipal staff this week invited a group of community leaders to brainstorm about what could be done with the number of dilapidated centers in Newnan. Obstacles preventing owners from re-investing, the group said, included lack of cash flow, fear of selling due to capital gains taxes, and a reluctance to invest until neighboring properties improved.