Workforce Management

 

Downsized facilities management departments. Projects that reduce maintenance and operating costs. Store refreshes as opposed to costly remodels. Mandy Rennehan of Freshco Retail Maintenance spoke with Chain Store Age about how changes in retail facilities management are impacting retailers.

 

What trends are you seeing with regard to store retrofits and remodels?

Last year, 37.3% of “Black Friday” consumers began shopping between 8 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Shopper traffic over the two-day Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday period at retail outlets totaled more than 1.07 billion store visits. Sales during the two-day period were $12.3 billion, and online sales grew an explosive 18.5%.

After seeing the financial benefits of opening earlier, more retailers are expected to open their doors on Thanksgiving Day to get a jump on their holiday sales.

Clickstop, a multi-brand online retailer, has promoted Sarah Watson to Director of Business Development, moving supplies, for the company’s largest online store, USCargoControl.com.

This promotion is in line with Clickstop’s focus on strength-based approach to employee learning implemented in 2014.  Watson's natural drive to achieve goals, anticipate obstacles, seek consensus and organize work to improve collaboration has propelled her into this new role, according to the company.

Atlanta –- United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) is reportedly forecasting that six days in the upcoming holiday season will be busier for shipping packages than its busiest day in the 2013 holiday season. According to Bloomberg, UPS predicts it will deliver 585 million packages in December, an 11% year-over-year increase.  

Richmond, Va. -- Employers in the hospitality industry will pay the highest average wage for holiday employees at $11.80 per hour, followed by retail at $10.30, and food service at $9.40, according to a survey by Snagajob, which provides recruitment and hiring solutions to the hourly industry.  

RadioShack’s same-day mobile repair service, branded as Fix it Here!, has been extended to more locations in the Chicago market.

The service is billed as a first-of-its-kind from a national retailer and offers owners of broken mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones the ability to have them repaired the same day, typically in less than two hours, for prices starting at $39.99.

Atlanta -- The Home Depot announced that it has named Marc Powers executive VP, U.S. stores, effective Nov. 1, 2014. He replaces Marvin Ellison, who was recently named president and CEO designee of J.C. Penney Co.  

Veteran Home Deport operations executive Marc Powers has been elevated to the role of EVP of U.S. stores as part of an ongoing leadership transformation.

Few people know Home Depot from the ground up the way Powers does. He began his career with the company in 1986 as an hourly employee and over the course of the past 28 years served as store manager, district manager and regional vice president. He most recently served as SVP of operations for the company’s nearly 2,000 U.S. stores.