Education

New York -- Walmart will open a mini-store on the campus of Georgia Tech, according to a report by the Atlanta-Constitution.

The 2,500-sq.-ft. convenience-store styled location, expected to open this spring, will be the retailer’s smallest unit in the country.

The Georgia Tech store will be Walmart’s second campus location. In 2011, the retailer opened a store on the campus of the University of Arkansas.
 

WASHINGTON — National Retail Federation and the University of Phoenix will award ten current retail employees in the U.S. a Dream BIG scholarship.

Each of the ten recipients will receive full tuition at any University of Phoenix campus or online program, to encourage them to pursue career opportunities within the retail industry.

NEW YORK — The National Retail Federation will present Ohio Council of Retail Merchants president and CEO John C. Mahaney Jr., known as “the Chief,” with the J. Thomas Weyant Lifetime Achievement Award at NRF’s Annual Convention and EXPO next week in New York.

Detroit, Mich. — Greeting card publisher Avanti Press has named Kari Knowlton as its new director of business development.

Founded by Rick Ruffner in 1980, Avanti Press publishes the Avanti and A*Press greeting card collections. The Detroit-based publisher’s everyday and seasonal card collections are carried in leading regional and national retail outlets as well as independent retail outlets throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and other countries worldwide.

WASHINGTON — The NRF Foundation and American Express announced the winners of their fifth annual Aspire2Retail Intercollegiate Challenge. Each student will receive an educational scholarship worth $2,500.

The contest is designed to increase understanding of diverse career paths in retail by engaging university students in a competitive, collaborative roleplay that involves implementing a multi-tiered business strategy.

New York City -- Barnes & Noble reported Friday that its holiday sales will likely miss internal projections as its Nook e-reader performed worse than expected during the holiday selling period.

The book seller also disclosed on Friday an investment by London-based media and education company Pearson of $89.5 million in cash in the e-reader subsidiary, representing a 5% equity stake.

Pearson joins Microsoft Inc. as an investor in the Nook subsidiary.

NEW YORK & LONDON — Nook Media, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, has teamed up with Pearson, a leading global learning company, to accelerate customer access to digital content.

Leading U.K. retailer J. Sainsbury named Jean Tomlin to its board as a non-executive director, effective January 1, 2013.

Tomlin’s appointment follows the previously announced retirement of Anna Ford from her role as non-executive director, effective December 31. In addition to her overall board contribution, Tomlin will chair the company’s corporate responsibility committee and sit on the remuneration and nomination committees.