Sales & Marketing

MATTHEWS, N.C. — Family Dollar has named Trade Area Systems, a supplier of enterprise market knowledge systems for retail, its IT Strategic Partner of the Year. The award was presented during the company’s fifth annual IT Strategic Partner Summit.

Family Dollar worked with Trade Area Systems in September 2012 to implement TAS Unity, an editable, data-collection software system that allows real estate managers to input photos and comments about stores, competitors and opportunities directly into the system from their mobile devices.

SEATTLE — Starbucks subsidiary Seattle’s Best Coffee opened 10 new drive-through windows at restaurants throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Items available for drive-through purchase include 12 combo specials priced $5 or less.

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. — Topco Associates LLC has hired former Limited Brands executive Paul Matthews as the company’s EVP and chief supply chain officer, reporting to president and CEO Randy Skoda. 

Topco provides aggregation, innovation and knowledge management solutions for leading food industry member-owners and customers. Matthews will oversee procurement of the company’s corporate brand and perishable products as well as the company’s logistics, supply chain management and quality assurance areas.

Franklin, Tenn. -- Almost three in 10 (28%) of North American retailers plan to adopt mobile POS technology by the end of the year, according to a new study from IHL Group.

Results of “Mobile POS: Hype to Reality” also indicate that 45% of all tablet POS shipments go to specialty retailers, mobile POS solutions will cannibalize about 12% of traditional retail POS shipments by 2016 and more than 85% of larger retailers say that in the next three years mobile POS systems will complement, rather than replace, traditional POS systems.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has announced on her personal Tumblr blog the company’s plans to acquire the social blogging site for $1.1 billion. It is Mayer’s largest deal to date since becoming head of the multinational Internet corporation. 

A huge redevelopment in Longmont, Colo., now has big new tenant names to promote. NewMark Merrill Mountain States has just named three new anchors for the redeveloped Twin Peaks Mall: Longmont’s first Whole Foods Market; a new, state-of-the-art Regal Cinemas; and Sam’s Club. The project, which is slated to open in 2014, also unveiled its new name – Village at the Peaks.
 

PLANO, Texas — J.C. Penney reported a deeper-than-expected loss of $348 million for its first quarter, compared to $163 million in the year-ago period, amid a 16.4% decline in revenue. The results came as the company seeks to undo the damage caused by former CEO Ron Johnson’s costly and largely failed makeover.

CAMDEN, N.J. — Campbell Soup Company and its Pepperidge Farm division were among those honored for consumer-driven innovation in product packaging at the DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation.