Supply Chain & Merchandising

Veteran information technology executive Joe Zucchero has joined the board of advisors at big data solutions provider Profitect.

Profitect said Zucchero’s expertise in IT operations, cross-organizational implementation, and an understanding of the technology needs of the retail industry aligned perfectly with the company’s suite of solutions.

Salisbury, N.C. -- Food Lion announced that it has made significant investments in 169 stores in North Carolina and South Carolina and created 500 new jobs. Key markets include Greenville, N.C., Wilmington, N.C., Columbia, S.C., Charleston, S.C., and Myrtle Beach, S.C.

To celebrate the launch, Food Lion is holding grand re-opening festivities at the 169 stores, including providing the first 50 customers at each location with a bag of free groceries Nov. 13 through Nov. 16.

Electrolux North America has recently begun production on its first Memphis, Tenn.-made home cooking appliances.

The inaugural products produced at the Memphis facility, the Frigidaire and Frigidaire Gallery slide–in ranges, rolled off the assembly line, were crated and loaded onto trucks for warehousing and retail distribution throughout the United States. This marks the culmination of a two-year construction effort of the $266 million facility.

Waterloo, Ontario -- Descartes Systems Group announced that Sears Holdings Corp. has selected Descartes' home delivery solution to enhance its ability to serve customers and improve the efficiency of its home delivery operations.

Holiday shopping continues to encroach on Thanksgiving with Walmart the latest retailer to reveal plans that its promotional activity will begin at 6 p.m. with an expanded range of featured items, price guarantees, deeper inventory levels and detailed crowd control procedures.

Thorofare, N.J. -- Shrink, comprised of shoplifting, employee or supplier fraud, organized retail crime and administrative errors, cost the retail industry more than $112 billion globally last year, and represented 1.4% of retail sales, on average, according to the 2012-2013 Global Retail Theft Barometer. In the United States, shrink came in at 1.5% of retail sales.

Portland, Ore. -- Bettery announced that it has teamed up with Safeway to give consumers a convenient way to adopt reusable household batteries, not only reducing their environmental footprint but also saving them money.

Bettery Swap Stations – kiosks for purchasing and exchanging rechargeable batteries – are being installed this month at multiple Safeway locations, starting with stores in Portland, Seattle and surrounding communities.

Atlanta -- QuantiSense, a provider of retail exception management software, announced that Christopher & Banks Corporation has licensed both QuantiSense Playbooks and QuantiSense Retail Business Intelligence to help automate the management of retail exceptions across its 598 stores in 44 states, as well as to provide the business analytic platform for their enterprise.