Retail

Minneapolis – Target Corp. reportedly plans to hire 70,000 seasonal workers for the upcoming holiday season, about 20% less than the 88,000 seasonal workers it hired for last year’s holiday season.

According to the Associated Press, Target wants to give full-time employees more opportunity to take on extra holiday hours. The retailer also wants to better anticipate and schedule for fluctuations in holiday traffic. About one-third of seasonal employees brought on last year obtained full-time jobs at Target.

By Jeff Wakefield, Verifone

Mobility. It is such a broad concept, meaning different things to merchants and consumers. Mobile acceptance, mobile payments, mobile POS, mobile shopping – each plays a distinct part in the overall mobile experience and each has different risks and rewards.

Within this larger mobile arena, the security of the mobile payment device offers the greatest risk for both merchants and consumers alike.

Miami — Gourmet pizza and Panini restaurant Spris has opened in Miami’s Southeast Financial Center in the central business district.

The 1,512-sq.-ft. restaurant is the most recent in a series of Miami homegrown restaurateurs to come to the 1.225 million sq. ft. office tower and plaza.

Pittsburgh -- Dick’s Sporting Goods announced that its second freestanding Field & Stream location will open on November 1, in Buttermilk Towne Center, Crescent Springs, Ky.

Northbrook, Ill. — Pine Tree Commercial Realty LLC recently promoted Todd Zinsmaster from senior VP to executive VP of acquisitions and development.

West Chester, Pa. – QVC has promoted John Cowan to the position of senior VP, information technology global services. Cowan was most recently VP global systems & initiatives.

Since joining in QVC in 1994, Cowan has held positions of increasing responsibility, including VP, business strategy and technology integration, and VP of business technology. He also played a key role in the start-up of QVC in Germany and Japan, and recently assisted QVC Italy in deploying a new systems release in September 2012.

Puyallup, Wash. — WiggleWorks Kids has leased a 4,500-sq.-ft. space for an indoor playground and birthday party center in the South Hill Mall in Puyallup, Wash. WiggleWorks will open the first week in December. It will be WiggleWorks second playground. The first is in Bellevue, Wash.

In addition to the playground, the WiggleWorks offers a semi-private part room equipped with a small kitchen for birthday parties, community gatherings and family gatherings.

Warrendale, Pa. -- Rue21 stockholders have approved the previously announced merger agreement under which funds advised by Apax Partners will acquire the shares of Rue21 for $42 per share in cash. Approximately 99.7% of the shares voted at today’s special stockholder meeting voted in favor of the agreement.