Retail

Los Angeles -- Survey results released Wednesday by PriceGrabber found that 54% of consumers expect to receive a tax refund this year. And, the majority plans to use the money for purchases.

According to PriceGrabber’s poll of 5,655 U.S. online shopping consumers, 24% anticipate a bigger refund than last year and 26% expect about the same amount. Thirty-two percent anticipate receiving less compared to 2012, and 18% aren't sure how much money they will receive.

Hampstead, Md. -- Jos. A. Bank Clothiers reported Wednesday that net income for the fiscal year ended Feb. 2 slid to $79.7 million, from $97.5 million in the prior year.

Annual sales rose 7.1% to a record $1.05 billion, from $979.9 million. Same-store sales decreased 0.5%.

Jos. A. Bank had warned that net income for fiscal year 2012 was expected to be approximately 20% lower than net income for fiscal year 2011.

Oklahoma City -- CVS Caremark Corp. will pay $11 million to settle federal claims that the company’s pharmacies in the state violated record-keeping requirements of the Controlled Substances Act.

Federal prosecutor Sanford Coats said Wednesday that CVS has agreed to the settlement to resolve all allegations. However, while CVS said that its stores must comply with the record-keeping requirements, it does not admit liability.

By Greg Munves, [email protected]

If you’re like many mid-level or tier one retailers, online or brick-and-mortar, you’ve probably made a significant investment in Big Data, capturing and analyzing customer buying patterns across your business. You may not realize, however, that this huge IT investment can actually be a profit center, if you sell your data back upstream to your suppliers.
 

New York -- A Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday revealed that embattled J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson saw his compensation package plummet 97% to about $1.9 million in 2012.

Johnson received a base salary of $1.5 million, up from his partial-year salary of $375,000 in 2011, but did not receive stock or option awards in 2012. That compares with a stock award worth $52.7 million on the date it was granted in 2011, when Johnson was named CEO.

Minneapolis -- Supervalu president and CEO Sam Duncan announced Wednesday some major changes to his executive leadership team.

CFO Sherry Smith will leave the company, effective May 30, and no replacement has yet been named. Smith is a 26-year veteran of the company and has served as EVP and CFO since December 2010.

General counsel Todd Sheldon will also leave the company, effective May 30, to be replaced by Karla Robertson, who has been named EVP for legal, effective immediately.

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens reported Wednesday that sales for the month of March increased 2.3% to $6.2 billion.

Total front-end sales increased 5.4% compared with the same month in fiscal 2012, while same-store front-end sales increased 4.2%. Front-end sales will have benefited from a March 31 Easter — last year Easter sales fell in April. As a result Walgreens said it will report combined comps for March and April with its April sales results.
 

Los Angeles - Bebe stores announced Wednesday it has named Katrina Glusac as chief merchandising officer, effective immediately.

In her new role, Glusac will lead the merchandising, visual merchandising and planning & allocations teams in defining and building the brand’s merchandising offerings across all categories.
 
Most recently, Glusac served as chief merchant and VP merchandising at ShoeDazzle.com. Prior to that, she was divisional VP and general merchandising manager of Guess.