Retail

Toys “R” Us is preparing for the holiday season with plans to hire 45,000 employees to staff its stores and distribution centers nationwide. This number is basically flat from last year’s holiday staffing totals.

Columbus, Ohio -- Rolfe Swinton, a creative, consumer insight and technology entrepreneur, has joined strategic brand and design firm Chute Gerdeman as CEO.

Swinton founded and built Lumi Mobile, a provider of mobile-enabled consumer insight technologies backed by WPP and Australian billionaire Chris Morris. He also co-founded Reality Mine, the leading provider of passive mobile data collection and behavioral analytics.

Imagine you are at in a major department store’s corporate headquarters as your team prepares numbers for the upcoming holiday season. The frenetic pace of retail holiday hiring can frazzle even the most experienced manager, and diligently checking every box in the employee onboarding process can seem laughably optimistic in the rush to find, hire and get as many employees as possible going in a matter of days.

Solutions Management, a leading national retail and corporate maintenance company, has appointed Michael DiTaranto as the company’s senior operations manager.

SMI partners with retailers and corporations to provide maintenance services which include floor care, window cleaning, high dusting, power washing and janitorial services. Recovery services include emergency services, mold testing and remediation, flood restoration and fire restoration.

Alpharetta, Ga. – McAlister’s Deli has named Jeff Sturgis as chief development officer. Sturgis has more than 17 years of experience in the franchise industry, including working as a consultant as well as senior management and development positions with Fantastic Sams Hair Salons and Focus Brands.

Sturgis will lead development functions including franchise sales, real estate, store design and construction.

Washington, D.C. -- Nearly 158 million consumers will participate in Halloween activities this year, slightly less than the historic high of 170 million people last year. New figures from the National Retail Federation (NRF) indicate the average consumer will spend $75.03 on Halloween this year, down 6% from $79.82 last year.

However, average overall spending on Halloween has increased 54.7% since 2005, with total spending estimated to reach $6.9 billion in 2013. Other NRF figures include:

Boston — The Wilder Companies has been awarded five new leasing and management contracts for nearly 900,000 sq. ft. in five shopping centers on the north and south shores of Boston.

The Crossing at Walkers Brook in Reading, Mass., is a 480,000-sq.-ft. center featuring Jordan’s Furniture, an IMAX Theatre and The Home Depot. An 80,000-sq.-ft. pedestrian-friendly lifestyle portion of the center features Staples, Golfsmith, the Paper Store, Macaroni Grill, Chili’s, and Starbucks.

East Moriches, N.Y. -- Solutions Management, a leading national retail and corporate maintenance company, announced the appointment of Michael DiTaranto as its new senior operations manager.