Business Intelligence (BI)

More Americans now say they are loosening the purse strings in advance of the holiday season, and fewer say they are tightening their belts, according to a recent Citi national survey.

Only 35% said they would be spending less than last year, reflecting the lowest level of holiday budget cutbacks since the financial crisis. As many as 63% of Americans plan to spend more (11%) or the same (52%) on holiday shopping this year.

ABC Supply has named Tony Vaden as chief information officer. He replaces Kathy Hendricks, who moved to a newly created post as executive director of customer connectivity for ABC Supply.

Vaden is an award-winning veteran of the information technology industry, and he will oversee all aspects of the information technology systems that support the company’s computing needs.

York, Pa. – Bon-Ton Stores has entered into an amendment to the company’s existing $675 million asset-based revolving credit facility that was scheduled to mature in March 2016. Bank of America, N.A. continues to serve as Agent on the credit facility.

The second amendment extends the maturity date of the commitments under the credit facility to Dec. 12, 2018. The amendment provides interest rate reductions and generally favorable revisions regarding the facility requirements.

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway has made its online grocery shopping website more accessible and usable for Safeway shoppers with visual impairments.

Safeway collaborated with its visually impaired customers to make the necessary changes to its website. As such, the company has adopted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 level AA as its accessibility standard.

The Coca-Cola Company’s board of directors has named Ed Steinike as a senior VP and Robert J. Jordan Jr. as a VP. Jordan will succeed William D. Hawkins III as general tax counsel, who announced his intention to retire in March 2014 after 15 years of service with the company.

Increased traffic at Costco helped fueled sales in the first quarter of 2014.

Analysis from price intelligence firm Profitero showed that Amazon.com makes more than 2.5 million price changes every day, compared with a little more than 50,000 total price changes made by brick-and-mortar retailers Walmart and Best Buy throughout November.

Profitero’s analysis also revealed that Amazon.com has increased its number of daily price changes 10-fold during the last 12 months. At the beginning of December 2012, the online retailer implemented just 269,113 price changes.

Kathy Hendricks, who had overseen ABC Supply’s information technology function for 28 years, most recently as VP and chief information officer, has been appointed to the newly created position of executive director of customer connectivity.

In her new role, she will lead ABC Supply’s strategic initiative to design, develop and implement the new information technology services that will connect ABC Supply to its customers and make it easier for its customers to run their businesses.