Target, Inc.

New York -- Target Corp. has agreed to pay $2.8 million to resolve a hiring discrimination claim filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
 
The EEOC said three "employment assessments," which Target no longer uses, disproportionately screened out applicants based on race and gender, according to the Associated Press, and therefore violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Later this year, Target will begin rolling out a key program that will enhance inventory visibility and accuracy in a way that the chain store giant hopes will “work its magic in the background to provide people with a seamless, stress-free shopping experience,” as the announcement from its corporate blog stated back in May.

Thanks to some financial engineering, Sears Holdings overcame a double digit decline in same store sales to produce a second quarter profit or a less severe loss depending on the arithmetic used.

In today’s news cycle, it’s become somewhat standard fare to read reports of a significant breach in the retail world. From Target to Neiman Marcus, UPS to eBay and even restaurants like P.F. Chang's and Dairy Queen, 2014 resulted in major retail breaches totaling 100 million credit cards and 313 million personal records. But it’s not just the big names that have targets on their backs; as Verizon’s 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report details: “the attack methods are becoming more varied, even against small businesses.”

Target’s better than expected second quarter profits, same store sales, rate of e-commerce growth and an increased full year forecast stood in sharp contrast to the disappointing results Walmart reported a day earlier.

Minneapolis – Target Corp. exceeded Wall Street projections with net earnings of $753 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015, a 221% increase from $234 million the same period the prior fiscal year. Declining selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses and loss from discontinued operations helped boost profits as sales climbed.

Target reported net sales of $17.4 billion, up 2.8% over the same period last year.

Toronto – Despite efforts by her previous employer to block the transition, former Kohl’s CIO Janet Schalk is joining Hudson’s Bay Co. in the same capacity. Schalk initially informed Kohl’s she would be leaving effective July 31 to take the Hudson’s Bay CIO post.

Despite efforts by her previous employer to block the transition, former Kohl’s CIO Janet Schalk is joining Hudson’s Bay Co. in the same capacity.