Supply Chain & Merchandising

William Blair & Company analyst Mark Miller has followed Walmart for a long time, but he didn’t have much good to say about the company when he issued a downgrade this week.

Miller lowered his rating on Walmart to underperform from market perform and cited some familiar and unfamiliar concerns. For example, one of his main concerns related to Walmart’s size and complexity which he contends reduces dynamism and growth.

San Francisco -- Gap Inc. highlighted its use of technology and innovation to bridge the growing digital world with its physical stores at the company’s annual meeting with investors. In new initiatives, the retailer is expanding its reserve in-store service to all U.S. Gap stores by the end of the second quarter, enabling online and mobile shoppers to now reserve items at more than 1,000 Gap and Banana Republic store locations.

Sears Holdings has tapped Arun Arora as SVP and president, Home Services, in which role he will take charge of the business unit's In-Home Repair Services, Service Contracts, Carry-In Repair, Sears Home Improvement Services, Parts Direct, Commercial Sales and Sears Franchise Businesses.

Corpus Christi, Texas -- Susser Holdings opened two new Stripes convenience stores during the first quarter of fiscal 2014 and acquired 47 convenience stores at the end of January 2014 that are currently operating under the Sac-N-Pac brand. The company has acquired one additional convenience store to date in the second quarter, and currently has 17 under construction.

Cheshunt, U.K. – Philip Clarke, CEO of leading U.K. grocery and general merchandise retailer Tesco plc is publicly resisting calls for his resignation following a 6% decline in annual profits and 3% quarterly drop in U.K. same-store sales. Tesco has reported falling profits for two consecutive years following 20 years of continual profit growth.

New York -- Sycamore Partners announced that it has reorganized the remaining businesses of The Jones Group into four independent operating companies: the Nine West Group, a jeanswear company (which will be named later), Jones New York, and the Kasper Group. Each will operate as an independent company led by its own management team. In line with the new decentralized structure, Wesley R. Card will step down as CEO and John T. McClain will step down as CFO of The Jones Group

Owning the shopping experience of the future is how Gap chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy described the motivation behind a wide range of omnichannel strategies he and other senior executives shared during an annual meeting with investors.

Murphy and Gap’s top division heads provided an overview of strategic initiatives designed to achieve long-term, profitable growth across its portfolio of brands and also highlighted how the company plans to use technology, innovation and scale as competitive advantages as it looks to deliver a world class omnichannel experience.

The 2014 spring Goodwill Sale, a cause-marketing partnership between The Bon-Ton Stores and Goodwill Industries International, collected more than 2.5 million pounds of clothing and textiles to benefit Goodwill's job training and employment services.