Supply Chain & Merchandising

Green Bay, Wis. -- Shopko on Monday named Peter McMahon, most recently COO of Loblaws, as its new CEO. Loblaws is Canada’s largest food retailer with over $30 billion in sales.

At Loblaws, McMahon was responsible for supply chain, IT, HR, labor relations, merchandising, store operations and loss prevention functions. Prior to Loblaws, McMahon held various senior level positions with some of the world’s largest retailers, including Wal-Mart in Germany and Japan and Tesco in central Europe.
 

The buzzwords abound — integrated retail, e-commerce — and consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable using these words. No matter what you call it, they are looking for and expecting the same thing: a seamless online to in-store or in-store to online experience.  

Walmart International president and CEO Doug McMillon was given the nod over Walmart U.S. president and CEO Bill Simon to succeed Mike Duke as president of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the company announced Monday morning.

McMillon, 47, will join the board effective immediately, and succeed Duke, 63, on February 1, when Walmart’s new fiscal year begins. McMillon’s successor will be named before the end of the fiscal year, according to the company.

New York – Foot Locker’s net income fell 2% in the third quarter, dropping to $104 million from $106 million.

Total revenue grew 6.4% to $1.62 million from $1.52 million, above estimates. Same-store sales increased 4.1%.

Cost of sales and income tax expense both increased during the quarter, affecting net income. During the third quarter, the company opened 28 new stores, remodeled or relocated 118 stores, and closed 13 stores.

Buoyed by its performance during Back to School season, Hibbett Sporting Goods sounded an optimistic tone regarding the holidays after reporting a surprisingly strong third quarter comp increase.

The operator of 904 stores in 31 states said its same store sales increased 4.8% and total sales increased 2.5% to $208 million during the quarter ended November 2.

San Bruno, Calif. – Wal-Mart is providing a number of special holiday deals to online and mobile shoppers as part of an early Cyber Monday promotion that begins Saturday, Nov. 30. In addition, Walmart's mobile app customers, Facebook fans and email subscribers will be among the first to receive invitations to an early shopping event on Sunday, Dec. 1, featuring up to 20 of the best Cyber Monday items while supplies last, before they are widely available.

The Fresh Market experienced an unanticipated sales slowdown across its store base, which it attributes to changing economic conditions and softening consumer confidence. Despite the slowdown, the company’s comparable-store sales grew and its gross margin expanded.

In keeping with the new holiday tradition of revealing promotions early, Walmart on Friday shared its range of extreme value items and free shipping offers and pushed the start of Cyber Monday to Saturday, November 30.

The headliner deal is a LG brand 55 inch, 3D LED television with a sound bar for $799 along with 200 other online specials that will last through Friday, December 6. Walmart also reduced its free shipping threshold to $35 from $50.