Data & Analytics

San Jose, Calif. -- VeriFone Systems announced it has won a contract to supply its PAYware Merchant card payment and settlement hosted service to Arcos Dorados, the largest restaurant operator in Latin America and the largest McDonald's franchisee in the world.

Beginning with 220 McDonald’s restaurants in Argentina and Uruguay, PAYware Merchant will be integrated with a proprietary POS system to accommodate card payment processing at the point of sale.

PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Safeway Monday announced the promotion of Mir Aamir to president customer loyalty and digital technologies, reporting to Diane Dietz, EVP, chief marketing officer. In this new role, Mir will lead Safeway's loyalty programs and oversee digital and mobile efforts related to loyalty. He will also continue to be responsible for marketing strategies, shopper analytics and insights, club card strategies and pricing.

Target’s credit card portfolio is looking a whole lot more attractive to potential acquirers following improvements in the delinquency rates, risk profile and strong profit growth.

Fourth-quarter operating profit in the credit card segment increased 287% to $151 million compared with $39 million in the fourth quarter the prior year. For the full year, credit card segment profits advanced 169% to $541 million compared with $201 million the prior year.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Monday by the Commerce Department showed that consumer spending in the United States in January edged up 0.2%, curbed by increased food and gas prices.

The results missed Bloomberg News forecasts and represented the smallest gain since June.

Incomes beat projections by climbing 1%, according to the report, reflecting the tax-cut compromise reached by President Obama and Congressional Republicans in December, and inflation remained below the Federal Reserve’s long-term forecast.

Target’s longstanding pricing philosophy of remaining within a few percentage points of Walmart remains intact, according to the most recently monthly pricing survey from Credit Suisse. The firm looks at prices on a basket of goods in Dallas and Chicago each month, and in January it revealed the gap between Walmart and Target had widened to 3.9% from 3.7% in December.

SALISBURY, N.C. — Food Lion announced Friday that it would add more of its MVP savings center kiosks to help customers save on their grocery bills.

MVP savings center kiosks, which are part of Food Lion's MVP customer loyalty card program, were introduced in stores last year. Since their introduction, kiosk coupons have up to five times the redemption rate when compared with coupons delivered via traditional distribution channels, Food Lion said.

Money-saving coupon kiosks also can be found at Bloom and at Harveys.

New York City -- Luxottica Group SpA said Monday its fourth-quarter net profit rose 88%. The Milan, Italy-based parent of the Sunglass Hut and Lens Crafters chains predicted a strong 2011 as consumers return to high-end brands.

The company said its net profit increased to €55.1 million ($75.8 million) in the final three months of 2010.

Luxottica will continue to expand its Sunglass Hut division in 2011, and expects to add 270 Sunglass Hut locations globally.

Plymouth Meeting, Pa. -- The Collegiate Retail Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 independent college stores, and social e-reading platform Copia Interactive announced Friday a partnership to provide Copia's social bookstore experience to the students, faculty and staff of universities served by CRA members.