Sales & Marketing

Sports Authority plans to hire 3,500 temporary employees across the country to meet consumer demand during the 2014 holiday season.

All Sports Authority locations will begin hiring this month and will continue until December. The specialty retailer added that it plans to convert hundreds of seasonal workers into permanent staff after the holidays.

Retailers have had a tough year when it comes to advertising prices. In January, a California court issued a multimillion dollar penalty against Overstock.com, after determining that the company advertised discounts in a misleading manner. Since then, retailers across a range of industries have been dragged into costly lawsuits and regulatory investigations involving similar issues. If you’re wondering how something as mundane as advertising the price of an item could lead to so much trouble it’s because the issue is more complicated than most people think.

Issaquah, Wash. -- Costco Wholesale Corp. on Wednesday reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $697 million, exceeding Wall Street forecasts, amid strong back-to-school sales and higher membership fees. The retailer reported net income of $617 million in the year-ago period.

Total sales for the quarter, ended Aug. 31, rose 9.3% to $35.52 billion, also better than expected.

Same-store sales rose 7% (excluding fuel).

iWallet Corporation, a secure luxury “techcessories” company, has appointed three new members to its board of directors including Carl Rosen, former COO of Bulova, then international consumer luxury goods company; Charles Ng, VP of sales at NEXT Biometrics and the former North American director of sales for Fingerprint Cards and sales director for Authentec, a biometric fingerprint technology; and Anthony Durkacz, EVP of the investment firm First Republic Capital Corporation.

San Francisco -- Gap Inc. announced that its chairman and CEO, Glen Murphy, will step down, effective February 1, 2015. He will be succeeded by Art Peck, the president of the company’s growth, innovation and digital division.

Murphy and Peck have worked side-by-side for the better part of a decade as Gap dramatically improved its financial performance while expanding globally, the company said.

Atlantic Natural Foods has acquired the Loma Linda brand of canned shelf stable alternative meat analog products. ANF will also license the Worthington Foods brand and will transition these products to the Loma Linda brand in the near future. Both brands were previously marketed solely by Kellogg Company.

Atlantic Natural Foods has been the sole producer of these products since 2008. In addition, ANF also purchased Kellogg Company’s Kaffree Roma alternative coffee beverage unit.

New York -- Target Corp. is enhancing the digital experience for its customers. The company is revamping its existing flagship app (with new versions for both iPhones and iPads) and its Cartwheel coupon app, and is also developing a new app for pharmacy, with rollouts scheduled for later this month. The retailer is also in the middle of updating its gift registry app.