Target, Inc.

The spiffy new look Walmart store associates are sporting these days is drawing complaints from some quarters who think the company went too far in striving for a modest degree of uniformity in the appearance of employees.

Apparently, it is now too much for Walmart to require employees to dress a certain way while they are at work with the dispute centering on what constitute a uniform versus a dress code and whether Walmart should pay for the clothes employees wear to work.

New York – More than 100 retailers, including Macy’s and J.C. Penney, have reportedly joined forces with the New York Police Department to create the Metropolitan Organized Retail Crime Alliance. According to the New York Daily News, the alliance will share information on criminals and scams targeting retailers and their customers.

New York - L.L. Bean provided the best overall customer service in August 2014. This marked the retailer’s fourth time topping Stella Benchmarks in customer service during 2014.

The retailer repeated its top performance from the previous month by ranking among the Top 25 in phone, email, shipping and returns. Nine companies that did not rank in the Top 25 overall for July earned a spot in August: Gap, Marc Jacobs, Burberry, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Motosport, Microsoft, Brooks Brothers and Wayfair.

Arlington, Va. -- The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and global sustainability non-profit Forum for the Future have launched a project to empower sustainability initiatives, Retail Horizons. The project is being launched ahead of the RILA 2014 Retail Sustainability Conference held from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2, in Minneapolis. Click here for a two-minute video on the program.  

New York -- Target Canada is aggressively repositioning to drive its price value, according to a basket pricing study by Kantar Retail.

“Target’s price leadership in Canada has clearly shifted,” noted Robin Sherk, director of retail insights, Kantar Retail, and contributor to the study. “We found that the price of Target Canada’s overall basket was 3.9% less expensive than Walmart’s. In our initial study, the retailers’ basket values were effectively even.”

Seattle -- REI announced that Annie Zipfel has been promoted to senior VP marketing. With her, REI will not hire a chief marketing officer as previously announced, but instead add a senior creative leader to the company.

Zipfel joined REI in 2012 as the divisional VP customer marketing, and was named VP of the marketing division in January 2014. Prior to REI, she held leadership and strategic roles at Target and General Mills.

McLean, Va. - Digital identity solution provider ID.me has unveiled its new retail rewards marketplace, which helps retailers hyper-target influencers and consumer segments with exclusive offers that are protected from fraud. The new product extends ID.me’s coverage from niche affinity groups like the military and students to all consumers.

Digital identity solution provider ID.me has unveiled its new retail rewards marketplace, which helps retail brands hyper-target valuable influencers and consumer segments with exclusive offers that are protected from fraud.