Mass Merchant

Addison, Texas — Coyote Management, L.P. said that Jennifer Hillard will join Coyote Management starting July 18 as the new marketing director at the1.2-million-sq.-ft. Chapel Hills Mall, located in Colorado Springs, Colo. 

Hillard was previously field communications manager/field trafficking manager at General Growth Properties, Chicago.     

New York — Francesca's Holdings Corp. will price its initial public offering of 10 million shares between $14 and $16 a share, the Houston Business Journal reported. 

The women’s specialty apparel retailer will trade on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbol FRAN, the report said.

In March 2011, private equity firm CCMP Capital acquired a controlling interest in Francesca’s, which operates 160 stores. 

Shanghai — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced it has appointed its current Canada finance chief Sean Clarke as COO over the company’s China operations, after former CFO Roland Lawrence and COO Rob Cissell left the company in May.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Clarke will be joined by Steve Smith, named chief marketing officer in China. Smith was senior VP at Delhaize Group. 

Small suppliers looking to establish business relationships with Massmart following Walmart’s acquisition of a controlling stake in the company would be well served to learn the correct pronunciation of Mncane Mthunzi.

Mthunzi will fill a new supplier development role at Massmart and comes to the retailer from an organization known as the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa where he served as CEO and Massmart CEO Grant Pattison serves as chairman.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Members of the Retail Industry Leaders Association on Wednesday arrived in Joplin, Mo., to help clean up the Midwest city that was hard-hit in May by a category F-5 tornado.

Major retailers collectively dialed back the number of ads inserts and the number of pages in June when compared to the prior year, according to Market Track. The company each month provides RetailingToday.com with an exclusive look at the promotional activity among 16 of the nation’s leading retailers and the interesting statistic that stands out it June is a huge increase in the number of ad pages that hit the market. Click here for a review of promotional activity.

That was the provocative, if somewhat dated, question Smart Money used as a headline on a story this week based on a consumer survey conducted by Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Wiltamuth. He initiated coverage of Walmart with an ambiguous “equal weight” rating and was quoted as saying, “Many consumers no longer think Walmart has the lowest prices.”

The debate over whether online retailers should be collecting sales tax is one of those “level playing field” issues that puts traditional brick and mortal retailers at a disadvantage. Or does it?