Supply Chain & Merchandising

A sizzling Ulta Beauty wowed the Street on Thursday, announcing aggressive store expansion at a time when many brick-and-mortar retailers are cutting back. It also upped its outlook.  

While digital disruption continues to stymie a good part of the industry, Sam’s Club is using the concept to its advantage.   The company’s VP of omnichannel member communication and innovation, Darshan Gad, and executive VP of operations Don Frieson, teamed up at the “Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit” event last week in Rogers, Ark., to discuss how the chain is using disruption to drive innovation.  

JLL Income Property Trust has purchased the Kierland Village Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, for $34.5 million. Kierland Village is an upscale development in the Phoenix suburb, which has seen a near 10% rise in population since 2000.   The 118,000-sq.-ft. neighborhood center is anchored by Safeway and houses Walgreens, Einstein Brothers, Pizza Hut, Panda Express, and a UPS Store.   The acquisition is in line with JLL’s current appetite for active, necessity-based centers.  

Not only is online shopping a way of life for many shoppers, more and more of them are doing it across borders.   Those are among the findings of the third annual Pitney Bowes Global Online Shopping Survey, in which nearly one-third of consumers reported they make domestic online purchases on a daily or weekly basis. While it's no surprise that consumers frequently make domestic online purchases (94%), more than two-thirds (66%) of these consumers have also made an online purchase from another country in the past year.

The University of Washington is teaming up with Costco, UPS, Nordstrom and other stakeholders on a new project that aims to improve the way consumers receive their goods.

The SCTL Center Urban Freight Lab says it will be working to improve the management of both public and private operations of urban goods delivery systems. Urban Freight Lab members plan to engage in strategic applied research projects at the SCTL Center, and help identify priority problems for future research.

Founding members of the SCTL Center Urban Freight Lab include:

Weis Markets has appointed R. Gregory Zeh, Jr. as VP/CIO of the company.    Zeh will oversee Weis’ day-to-day information technology functions, working in support of marketing and merchandising, supply chain and in-store management retail applications.   

Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores’ is making more executive changes.   The chain appointed Michael Goulder to senior VP, inventory management and supply chain. Chosen for his ability to drive significant performance improvements, Goulder has a track record for linking innovative strategies to operating tactics and leading organizational change, according to a company statement. He will report to the company’s president and CEO, Jill Soltau.  

With its recent acquisition of Jet.com, a commitment to growing its online grocery business with a convenient grocery pick-up option and an extensive investment against delivering a seamless digital shopping experience, Walmart is once again flipping the script on what it means to compete for America's shopping dollar.   The company's investment in grocery pick-up services represents the cover of that new script - and Walmart is expanding that service to 600 stores this year and 500 stores next year.