Supply Chain & Merchandising

New York -- Tiger, the Danish discount chain known for its low prices and design emphasis, is entering the United States, opening a 5,000-sq.-ft. flagship in May, in New York City.

Tiger stores offer a quirky, ever-changing selection of exclusive products across a wide variety of categories, including home, toys, hobby, party, snacks, electronics, gadgets, fashion accessories and seasonal. The majority of its products, roughly half of which are designed in house, sell for $10 or less.

Walmart is beginning to raise wages for workers in several states as part of its employee initiative for fiscal 2015.

Rite Aid said higher prescription sales and stronger cost control helped the drugstore chain report a profit surge for the fourth quarter.

Camp Hill, Pa. – Rite Aid Corp. beat Wall Street expectations with soaring profit in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. The retailer reported net income of $1.83 billion, exponentially larger than net income of $55.4 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

A favorable tax asset valuation drove the substantial profit growth. Revenues rose 4% to $6.8 billion from $6.6 billion, mostly due to a same-store sales increase of 4.5%.

Japanese retailer Uniqlo's U.S. expansion is picking up speed as the company prepares to open its first-ever stores in the Seattle, Denver and Washington, D.C.

San Francisco – Alibaba.com has collaborated with e-commerce platform to Bigcommerce deliver an integrated shopping experience for sourcing products from Alibaba.com’s network of Chinese wholesale suppliers. The Alibaba.com Wholesale solution is immediately available to Bigcommerce’s 70,000 stores, and online merchants can now access and purchase a collection of more than 30,000 products from about 300 of Alibaba.com’s Gold Suppliers in China with scope to expand to more than three million products from thousands of Gold Suppliers.

Food has always been an important part of the shopping experience at Ikea, and the retailer is doubling down on that strategy by unveiling a new menu.  

Ikea announced it will be adding more nutritious and sustainable food options to its restaurants, bistros near the checkout, Swedish food markets and co-worker restaurants. The new food strategy highlights how important food is to the chain.

A 38-year Kroger employee who started out in the company bagging groceries at a Cincinnati area store has been promoted to president.