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A surprising decline in retail hiring helped trigger a weak employment report for April.

Job growth in April slowed sharply to a seven-month low. The report gave back growth seen earlier in the year, and the retail industry — excluding automobiles, gasoline and restaurants — showed a decline of 4,900 jobs, the National Retail Federation reported.

The Kroger Co.'s senior VP for retail operations and strategic initiatives plans to retire in April.

The company announced that Marnette Perry plans to retire on April 29, after 44 years with the company.

To help encourage early detection of diabetes in communities around the United States, Sam’s Club Pharmacy will host free diabetes screenings to both members and non-members on Sept. 13 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
 
The diabetes screenings are free, confidential and available to the public at all Sam’s Club locations with a pharmacy (599 locations). The screenings, valued at $250, include tests for:

Bangkok, Thailand -- Berli Jucker PLC, (BJC), a Thailand-based provider of CPG goods, is adopting the Vision Suite enterprise platform from Jesta I.S. Merchandising and POS solutions are among the Vision technologies BJC is employing.

BJC will leverage the Vision Suite for managing its multi-channel retail operations in Thailand and Vietnam. Upon implementation, BJC will have an end-to-end integrated system delivering greater ability to analyze store strategy and visibility over retail decisions.

TOPEKA, Kan. — Payless Holdings has named Paul Jones as CEO. Jones was most recently chairman, president and CEO of Shopko Stores, a $2.7 billion mass merchandiser providing quality products and health services at great values in small to mid-sized markets. Jones will be based in Topeka and will join the company in an official capacity on Oct. 22.