Walmart

Hibbett Sports has promoted Jared Briskin to SVP and chief merchant. Briskin replaces Rebecca Jones, who left the company this week.

American Express has promoted Neal Sample, currently Enterprise Growth’s chief information officer and chief marketing technologist, to president. He will report to American Express CEO Kenneth I. Chenault and will serve as a member of the company's operating committee.

Sample replaces Dan Schulman, formerly group president of Enterprise Growth, who has resigned his position to become CEO of eBay’s spun-off PayPal business.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores has appointed Kevin Systrom, CEO and co-founder of photo-sharing service Instagram, as a new member of the company’s board, effective Sept. 26. Systrom will also serve as a member of the retailer’s technology and e-commerce committee and its compensation, nominating and governance committee (CNGC).

Newport Beach, Calif. – Investment real estate services firm Lucescu Realty has sold three retail shopping centers in Utah for $225.6 million. The properties included The Family Center at Fort Union in Midvale, Utah; The Family Center at Taylorsville in Taylorsville, Utah; and The Family Center at Orem in Orem, Utah.  

Walmart continues to deploy new capabilities through e-commerce and mobile channels — and as part of its digital agenda, the board has added Instagram CEO and co-founder Kevin Systrom to its ranks.

The entrepreneur, software engineer and co-founder of photo-sharing service Instagram has become the 15th member of the board. Systrom will also serve as a member of the company’s technology and e-commerce committee and its compensation, nominating and governance committee (CNGC).

Newgistics, a leading provider of end-to-end e-commerce solutions for top retailers and brands, is making it easier for U.S. retailers to access the largest markets overseas — including the U.K., Europe, Asia, Australia, Russia, China and South America — by expanding its parcel delivery and return services and reducing the costs of cross-border delivery.

Key features of Newgistics’ international solution include:
Delivery to 34 key global markets with plans for future expansion
Full end-to-end tracking

Northbrook, Ill. - Pine Tree Commercial Realty LLC has acquired Riverbend Marketplace, a regional shopping center located in Asheville, North Carolina, in partnership with Wanxiang America Real Estate Group. The 142,617-sq.-ft. shopping center is shadow-anchored by Walmart, anchored by Kohl’s and Petsmart, and features 110,715-sq.-ft. of national best-in-class retailers.

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.

Walmart has been on a building boom in Northwest Arkansas. Small-format Express stores have been open now for several years, the new convenience concept Walmart To Go opened earlier this year and the latest development is a hybrid concept that allows online grocery orders to be picked up at a dedicated drive-through facility.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores is moving deeper into financial services. The retailer is launching an exclusive checking account product, called GoBank, with Green Dot Corp., a prepaid-cards specialist that has a subsidiary bank. Wal-Mart already offers a prepaid debit card, credit card, check cashing and money transfers.