Distribution

Houston - Sunoco L.P. has appointed Matthew S. Ramsey as chairman of the board. Ramsey succeeds Sam L. Susser, who has resigned from the board to pursue other new business interests.

Ramsey has served as a director of Sunoco L.P. since August 2014, serving as chair of the audit committee and serving on the compensation committee. Ramsey also serves as a director of Energy Transfer Equity L.P. and is chairman of the audit committee, as well as a member of the compensation committee.

Athleisure apparel continues to be a driver of growth for Columbia Sportswear Co., which posted record sales in its first quarter.

Front-end omnichannel success relies on back-end fulfillment

The front-end promise of omnichannel retail cannot be delivered without investment in back-end technology and processes that allow fulfillment of orders across multiple channels. Retailers must eliminate internal silos and obtain real-time awareness of their full inventory.

Omnichannel fulfillment is a difficult, but not impossible, task.

Quincy, Mass. -- Stop & Shop has broken ground on the company’s first anaerobic digester at its distribution center in Freetown, Massachusetts. The state-of-the-art digester will turn food scraps into clean energy.

As part of its sustainability efforts, Stop & Shop plans to donate and divert as much food waste and unsold food as possible to regional food banks and farms. But food that cannot be donated will be sent to the digester. The supermarket retailer has set a long-term goal to divert 90% of waste going to landfills.

Smart & Final Stores Inc. credited strong merchandising and marketing initiatives with the retailer's impressive jump in same store sales for the first quarter.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon was in Beijing on Wednesday, where he put a finer point on a previously announced international expansion plan that will include a blend of 115 new stores, remodels and select closures in the world’s second largest economy.

McMillon and Walmart Asia CEO Scott Price participated in a press conference in Beijing, where the emphasis was on the retailer’s physical expansion in a market where overall economic rates of growth have been decelerating with little mention of e-commerce.

San Diego - After a successful pilot in Boston and San Francisco, Petco is expanding its partnership with Instacart. Beginning April 28, customers in 14 metro areas served by Instacart can order from Petco stores and have everything delivered in as little as one hour.

Instacart currently serves 15 metro areas: Atlanta, Austin, Boulder, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland (OR), San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The company plans to add several more cities before the end of 2015.

Winter storms and lower sales of its Elfa closet system led to decreased profit for the Container Store in the fourth quarter.