Sales & Marketing

SAN FRANCISCO — Gap is honoring the 70th birthday of Jimi Hendrix with the launch of two limited-edition t-shirt designs. The t-shirts feature art from the iconic musician's new album, People, Hell and Angels, which introduces previously unreleased studio recordings from 1969, the year Gap was founded in San Francisco.

Minneapolis -- Supervalu announced Monday that it will make sweeping changes among its executive ranks as part of a previously announced right-sizing program.

Newly minted president and CEO Sam Duncan has named former Kroger VP Mark Van Buskirk as EVP merchandising and marketing for Supervalu, charged with oversight of retail merchandising and marketing.

Former Albertsons executive Rob Woseth has been named EVP chief strategy officer, overseeing real estate and corporate development, as well as strategic growth opportunities.

THOROFARE, N.J. — Checkpoint Systems, a provider of shrink protection solutions, has named Marc Giles to its board of directors, effective immediately.

Giles spent most of his career with industrial technology companies beginning in sales and marketing before expanding into management positions of increasing responsibility and global reach. In 2000, he was recruited by Gerber Scientific, Inc. to serve as president of its Gerber Technology division.

By Randy Frischer, [email protected]

ATLANTA — First Data, a provider of electronic commerce and payment processing, announced that it  is working with Foursquare to extend its already-successful Foursquare Specials for Credit Cards program to now accept Visa and MasterCard, and most debit cards. Foursquare has integrated the First DataSM OfferWiseSM solution that seamlessly allows users to sync their card, and then swipe at a participating merchant location to redeem offers and receive automatic savings.

Fourth quarter same store sales inched up 0.9% at Best Buy and profits were better than expected as the company fared better during the holiday season than many thought.

Fourth quarter revenue increased slightly to $16.7 billion for the 13 week period ended February 2, and the company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.64 compared to $2.18 the prior year. The company also said adjusted free cash flow totaled $965 million thanks to aggressive inventory reductions.

Minneapolis -- Best Buy Co. said that its loss narrowed in the fourth quarter, helped by improved U.S. sales. In a separate release, the company said that the deadline passed without it having received an acquisition offer from its co-founder, Richard Schulze, who had been considering making a bid for the chain.

“The company received no such offer and will continue to focus on its transformation for the benefit of all of its stakeholders,” Best Buy said in a statement.

With 4,000 U.S. stores serving as product depots, same day delivery holds great potential for a retailer with an unrivaled retail footprint, assuming a strategy can be developed to profitably unlock the opportunity.

Walmart has experimented with same day delivery on the west coast where order are fulfilled from stores and a broader rollout of the service would seem inevitable at some point in the future given online shoppers desire for immediate gratification.