Discount Store

It was the biggest story in the retail world last week when JCPenney announced it had hired Ron Johnson as its new CEO with the incoming executive vowing to transform the way America shops by reinventing the department store. Such statements normally elicit a yawn because they are so common, but Johnson is the former SVP retail at Apple and spent the past 11 years overseeing the development and growth of the company’s wildly successful and widely heralded retail operation.

NEW YORK— Winn-Dixie Stores has filed suit against Dolgencorp, the parent company of Dollar General. The grocer confirmed that the suit was filed because Dolgencorp “knowingly violates legal, noncompete provisions of Winn-Dixie leases in shopping centers in which both businesses operate,” Winn-Dixie told the Jacksonville Business Journal in an email.

Washington, D.C. -- In a ruling that may mean new limits on class-action suits, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled for Wal-Mart Stores in the largest sex-discrimination lawsuit in history as it put the brakes on a massive job discrimination lawsuit against the chain.

Target’s first stores in Canada are not scheduled to open until 2013, but this week the company can get a glimpse of what it’s up against when Walmart Canada president and CEO David Cheesewright is scheduled to speak at the Jefferies 2011 Global Consumer Conference.

PLANO, Texas — Last week, RetailingToday.com reported that former Apple executive Ron Johnson would succeed Mike Ullman as CEO of JCPenney. Today, JCPenney announced that Ullman, who was originally slated to remain on the company's board of directors indefinitely, will now be leaving the company on Feb. 1, 2012.