Retail

Dayton, Ohio -- Interbrand, a leading global brand consultancy, announced Wednesday that Lee Carpenter is leaving his current position as CEO of the North America region. Carpenter, CEO of Interbrand North America since 2007, will step down from his full-time role, effective July 23. He will continue to advise Interbrand during the next three months, but has decided to focus his attention on other personal opportunities.   

Dallas — SRS Real Estate Partners has hired Daniel Poku as an associate in the Dallas/Fort Worth office. A newcomer to the industry, Poku has a background in economics.

Poku is a recent graduate of Southern Methodist University. Poku is also currently pursuing a new venture called CauseCakes, with plans to launch fall 2014. CauseCakes partnered with a local bakery to provide cupcakes with wrappers that prompt acts of random kindness for special events and corporate meetings.

Bentonville, Ark. - Sam’s Club will open a new store in Oxford, Alabama, on July 24. The store will bring 170 jobs to the community

A number of health and wellness services will also be available, including a pharmacy, optical center and hearing aid center.

New York – The National Labor Relations Board has issued a ruling that workers in the cosmetics and fragrances department in a Macy’s store located in Saugus, Massachusetts, have the right to attempt to unionize. According to the Wall Street Journal, the 3-1 ruling sided with the United Food and Commercial Workers union and said the 41 Macy’s employees form a community of interest.

San Jose, Calif. - On average, consumers say 64% of their back-to-school shopping will take place in-store, the rest online via computer or mobile device. A new survey of 1,001 U.S. parents with school-age children from customer experience solutions provider Baynote and The E-tailing Group also shows that 40% of consumers say that paper catalogs influence their in-store purchases, more than any other channel.

Dallas - On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, has appointed Ward Whitworth as president of On The Border. The move follows the resignation of On The Border CEO Steve Clark, who has committed to stay on for a period of time in order to ensure a smooth transition to new leadership.

New York – Saks Fifth Avenue and Party City are both utilizing the Scandit software-based barcode scanning and data capture platform for smartphones, tablets and wearable computing devices. Using Scandit’s Barcode Scanner SDK, the retailers are able to offer a variety of consumer- and employee-facing applications, including mobile shopping, clienteling, mobile point-of-sale, asset tracking and product information gathering.  

Cleveland -- Shopping ranks as a favorite activity among nearly half of all teens and young adults aged 13 to 24, according to a new survey by Forest City in partnership with Alexander Babbage. Shopping at malls ranked above a virtual shopping experience among the entire group, with the 13-to-17-year-old age group showing the strongest preference for a bricks-and-mortar shopping experience.