Education

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) has announced that former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta will be a keynote speaker at the 2014 NACDS annual meeting, which will be held April 26-29 in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Bay Shore, N.Y. - One in three shoppers have walked out of a store without buying the goods they intended to because of a bad experience with a self-service checkout, according to a new survey from queue management company Tensator. With 84% of respondents admitting to needing staff assistance when using a self-service, nearly 60% of customers actually prefer using more traditional staffed checkouts, the company said.

Other survey findings include:

Ace Brand from 3M Company has enlisted actor and rapper LL Cool J to help it kick off “A” Game Challenge, a nationwide contest inviting sports fans and aspiring young athletes nationwide ages 13-24 to submit “A” Game video entries, for a chance to win a $10,000 scholarship.

New York — Faith Hop Consolo, chairman of Douglas Elliman’s Retail Group has taken her seat as a member of the 2014 board of directors of the Commercial Real Estate Women’s (CREW) Network on Oct. 9, at CREW Network’s annual Convention and Fall Council Meeting in Dallas. Her term begins January 1, 2014.

CREW Network is the largest commercial real estate association for women and represents approximately 8,200 women leaders in 74 markets throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Boston – College students most frequently eat snack foods in the afternoon and are frequently replacing meals with snacks. A new study from marketing agency Fluent shows that 75% of college students replace meals with snacks and afternoon snacking is three times more popular than morning or late night snacking.

Other notable findings of the survey college students age 18-25 include:

San Bruno, Calif. -- Over 35% of respondents received no formal training, and 28% were asked to read a manual or a handbook, according to a recent study of retail store associates by Qumu, a provider of secure multimedia content management and delivery solutions. The survey also revealed that retail employees are looking for improved executive communication to provide them with a greater understanding of company strategy (57%), more connectedness to the company community (47%), and understanding of activity in other stores (46%).

The National Retail Federation has retained New York-based digital agency Rain to create digital shorts that launched last week on NRF’s industry campaign site, “This is Retail.”

Interview Day — a series of short, humorous videos — targets recent grads and young adults who are worn out competing for jobs in a challenging economy.

SAN FRANCISCO — Beauty retailer Sephora has launched Sephora University Beauty Classes, a new program designed to help beauty lovers of all ages and abilities master everything from building a skin care routine to creating the perfect smoky eye.

Now available in more than 60 stores throughout the United States, these complimentary classes are the newest way in which Sephora is striving to further enhance the client experience.