Retail

RG Barry Brands has named Jeff Cosgrove to head its Foot Petals Business Unit. Cosgrove most recently served as the company's VP of sales and merchandising and off-price channel sales.

"Jeff has filled several critical sales and merchandising roles with us since joining our team in Nov. 2008, and we believe he is the right leader to drive continued growth in our comfort insert business while aligning that business with the vast changes currently taking place in the retail marketplace," said president and CEO Greg Tunney.

By Carole Murphy

New York – Barnes & Noble, Inc. has appointed president Michael P. Huseby to CEO. Immediately, in his role, Huseby will be responsible for all of the company’s business units including Barnes & Noble Retail, Barnes & Noble College and Nook Media.

He will report to the board of directors and has been elected to serve on the board. Huseby joined Barnes & Noble as CFO in March 2012, and was promoted to president in July 2013.

Safeway and Giant Eagle are rolling out the inMarket Mobile to Mortar iBeacon location sensing platform at more than 150 grocery stores in Seattle, San Francisco and Cleveland, with additional retailers and markets launching in the coming months.

iBeacons are micro-location technology that use a low-energy Bluetooth signal to enable unique mobile app experiences based on the customer’s location in the store.

Giant Eagle's new Market District Express prototype combines fresh, chef-created meals with traditional and specialty groceries in a 15,500-sq.-ft. supermarket/convenience store hybrid format. The store also includes a restaurant and pharmacy with drive-through access.

Giant Eagle views this latest development as a test. According to various reports, however, plans are already on the drawing board to build two additional Market District Express locations in Ohio, one in the Columbus market and the other in the Cleveland area.

Palo Alto, Calif. – Symphony EYC is introducing Symphony EYC Insights 2 Execution, a new cloud-based category collaboration platform that enables retailers and CPG manufacturers to adopt best practices in category management. The platform’s initial release, iAssort, provides users with browser-based access to their information to build strategic localized assortments that are space-aware.

Despite the short holiday season, December was still the biggest shopping month of the year.

Shopper traffic up more than one-third over November

Minneapolis -- Direct Source is enabling its retail customers to protect their mobility investments and help ensure worker productivity with help-desk and mobile device management (MDM) services through its relationship with Enterprise Mobile. The Enterprise Mobile offering supports all operating systems, including Apple iOS, Windows, Blackberry and Android, letting retailers outsource ongoing management for devices used by corporate employees and store associates.