Distribution

Macy’s is the latest retailer to announce it will hire roughly the same amount of holiday employees as last year.    This holiday season, the department store giant plans to hire approximately 83,000 associates for positions across its Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores, call centers, distribution centers and online fulfillment centers nationwide.   

As more retailers announce their seasonal hiring plans, filling omnichannel-supporting roles will be a priority.  

Weiss Markets is expanding its store portfolio.

The retailer plans to convert 38 Food Lion supermarket locations to Weis Markets stores. Weiss Markets has completed the purchase of 38 Food Lion stores and plans to convert the locations to the Weiss banner by the end of October. The acquired stores are located in the states of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware.

The holiday hiring wars have begun.

Target Corp. is the first national retailer to announce its holiday hiring plans with the news that it plans to hire 70,000 seasonal store associates. The amount is the same as last year.

In addition, the discounter plan to hire 7,500 employees to work in its distribution and fulfillment facilities during the holiday season, which is slightly up from last year.

The collapse of Hanjin Shipping, the seventh largest freight carrier in the world, has left $14 billion worth of cargo in limbo. Much of that is literally floating around in the ocean, unable to dock; the rest is sitting idle in ports waiting to be unloaded. For Samsung, that means $38 million worth of electronics and appliances are held hostage in the carrier-bankruptcy case. And HP has 500 containers filled with computers waiting to reach American soil.

Patton Square Shopping Center in Woodruff, South Carolina, has been acquired by Pro Vest Properties for $7.3 million dollars. SRS Real Estate partners brokered the deal for the seller, an affiliate of Chen Development.

“Patton Square is a solid grocery-anchored neighborhood center with minimal competition in the market,” said Pierce Mayson, VP for SRS’ Southeast Investment Sales Team. “With a long-term anchor lease and very solid sales numbers, this asset is an excellent purchase for the buyer.”

Based on ongoing discussions with the Federal Trade Commission, Walgreens Boots Alliance gave an update on the amount of stores it will need to divest to win approval for its acquisition of Rite Aid.     Walgreens Boots Alliance said it now expects that the most likely outcome will be that the companies will be required to divest more than 500 stores, but fewer than 1,000 stores. The company previously said that it expected it would have to divest 500 or fewer stores.    

On the heels of announcing plans to open smaller, “local” stores, lululemon athletica hopes to further extend the breadth of its brand by expanding its ship-from-store service — just in time for the upcoming holiday shopping season.    The program, which currently encompasses 11 stores, will grow to 65 locations, a move that will streamline fulfillment of online orders, Laurent Potdevin, lululemon’s CEO, said during the company’s fiscal second quarter 2016 earnings call last week.  

The fire that damaged a Gap Inc.’s primary distribution center in the Northeast was no accident.   The massive fire at Gap’s DC in Fishkill, New York, was intentionally set, according to Reuters, which cited a report by the New York State Police.   "The ATF National Response Team has concluded that the fire was incendiary in nature. This means that the fire was intentionally set," the State Police said.  

Kohl’s comprehensive omnichannel distribution network is about to get even bigger.   The department store chain is preparing to open a new distribution center in Plainfield, Ind., just in time to manage the 2017 holiday season.