Education

Kroger is adding a veteran of the consumer products industry to its board of directors.

[Editor's note: This article is based on a discussion moderated by Shah Karim with Myron E. Ullman, executive chairman of J.C. Penney, held at the Executive + Scholar lecture at the University of North Texas on October 8, 2015.]

An entertainer, actor and television personality — who also happens to be the ex-husband of recording star Mariah Carey — has been tapped as the creative head of the reborn RadioShack.

The chain announced it has hired Nick Cannon as its chief creative officer. And he won’t just be a figurehead or celebrity pitchman, according to the company.

Retailers and academics are coming together to help drive continuing innovation in digital retailing.

“Our main mission is the advancement of digital retail through collaboration among academic and retail partners,” said Richard Last, senior director of the Global Digital Retail Research Center at the University of North Texas, during an interview with Chain Store Age.

7-Eleven is teaming up with a San Francisco start-up to launch an on-demand delivery service at select colleges.

The convenience store giant has partnered with Tapingo, a mobile commerce application for college campuses, to launch on-demand delivery of 7-Eleven products in the college market.

Walmart’s foes are at it again this holiday season, looking to disparage the company with misinformation and publicity stunts that harm the workers the organization claims to help.

Starbucks is the number one retailer employer in the United States when it comes to fostering a happy workplace.

That’s according to a survey by CareerBliss, which analyzed the key factors that impact workplace happiness. Ace Hardware, Ikea, Apple and Barnes & Noble round out the CareerBliss top five.

“The employee reviews on CareerBliss rank Starbucks as the number one retail employer in the United States when it comes to employee happiness,” said Heidi Golledge, co-founder of CareerBliss.

On Oct. 23, America lost one of its greatest retailing entrepreneurs, Tom Stemberg, who invented the office superstore industry close to 30 years ago. Tom, a Boston resident was a grocery executive early in his career. He came up with the idea of a supermarket for office products after driving around looking for a typewriter ribbon. He then founded Staples, now a $22 billion worldwide company.