Data & Analytics

Hyphen Solutions has appointed Ken Pinto, a former supply chain executive for Toll Bros. and other national home builders, as its VP supply chain.

Pinto brings 21 years of supply chain management expertise to Hyphen's real estate and software management team. He most recently served as the director of supply chain at Toll Bros. and has held similar positions at Standard Pacific and Pulte Homes. Pinto also heads the Supply Chain Benchmark Group, which is a coalition of the purchasing leaders of some of the largest home builders in the United States.

Top food executives at Walmart are presumably in the crosshairs of Safeway recruiters now that longtime chairman and CEO Steve Burd has announced his retirement.

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens reported Friday that sales for the month of December dipped 4% to $6.71 billion, from $6.99 billion in the year-ago period.
 
Total front-end sales fell 1.3% and same-store front-end sales decreased 2.3%.
 
Total same-store sales fell 6.1% in December.

As I prepare to pack my bags for New York to spend a few days in the NYC office and attend the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show” held at Javit’s Center from Jan. 13 to 15, I feel compelled to bring up this point about the annual NRF convention: it isn’t just for techies.

By Craig Szklany, [email protected] and Mark Stier, [email protected]
 

Oak Brook, Ill.-based Ace Hardware launched Instant Savings, a program for Ace Rewards members that allows them to receive instant discounts at the register.

“We have made it even easier for our customers to shop with Ace by delivering more value and convenience for them,” said John Surane, senior VP, merchandising, marketing, advertising and paint. “We constantly look for ways to add value for our customers, and Instant Savings is a major new exclusive benefit to our Ace Rewards loyalty program that does just that.”

New York -- A shift in the New Year's holiday calendar and the introduction of new generic drugs contributed to a decrease in same-store sales for the month of December at Rite Aid, the retail pharmacy chain said Thursday.

Rite Aid reported a 2.2% decrease in comps for the four-week period that ended Saturday, including a 1% decrease in front-end comps and a 2.9% decrease in pharmacy comps.

Total sales for the four-week period decreased by 2.7%, to $2.054 billion, compared with $2.112 billion in December 2011.

Online holiday season sales grew 14% to $42.3 billion, a little short of comScore’s pre-season forecast.

The online measurement firm originally projected that online sales during the November and December period would increase 16% to $43.4 billion. However, after a strong start online sales fizzled a bit in early December and never quite regained enough momentum to achieve the firm’s earlier target.