Sam's Club

Sam’s Club made some expansive personnel and strategy changes focused on merchandising on the same day that Walmart announced job cuts at its home office in Bentonville, Arkansas.

In a memo sent to Sam’s Club employees on Friday, Sam’s Club CEO Rosalind Brewer said the company “has been conducting an in-depth analysis of its business to map out a winning path for the future of Sam’s Club.”

The four key elements to the new strategy include:

Academy Sports and Outdoors named former Meijer president James Kevin Symancyk to the role of president and CEO in a move that suggests the retailers private equity owners could be eyeing a public stock offering.

Symancyk, 43, will assume his new responsibilities on Nov. 2, when current president and CEO Rodney Faldyn steps down after 10 years with the operator of more than 200 large format, full line sporting goods stores.

Express is making payment and participation in its loyalty program easier to accomplish from a mobile device. The specialty apparel retailer is launching a new mobile app that includes full integration with its Express Next loyalty program and cardless payment functionality.

Sam’s Club and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation are investing in an innovative program to help spawn the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Walmart has returned to its acquisitive ways in Silicon Valley with the purchase of PunchTab, a four-year old company with talent and technology to help the retailer’s Sam’s Club division better personalize offers.

Jeremy King, head of WalmartLabs, and Jamie Iannone, president and CEO of Samsclub.com announced the deal to acquire PunchTab in a joint statement on the @WalmartLabs site. The deal involves the purchase of PunchTab’s and six employees who will join WalmartLabs including founder Mehdi Ait Oufkir.

Usually retailers are not pleased when hackers get into their systems, but Walmart Stores Inc. is very happy with three hackers in particular. Walmart will test a new SMS-based customer service tool that won a recent Walmart Labs-sponsored “hackathon.”

The CEO of one of America’s most prominent discount retail chains has joined the board of directors of quick service restaurant operator Yum Brands. Target CEO Brian J. Cornell, 56, is now a member of the Yum Brands board.

In the latest move in its battle against Costco, Sam's Club is going to start accepting the very form of payment that Costco rebuffed earlier this year.