Workforce Management

A few days after announcing a new fulfillment center in Edgerton, Kansas, Amazon.com is unveiling plans for another new center that will serve customers a little further west.

Amazon plans to open a seventh California fulfillment center in San Bernardino, where the company launched its fulfillment center in the state in 2012. The retailer currently employs more than 12,000 full-time hourly associates at its six existing California locations and says it will hire more than 1,000 full-time employees in the new San Bernardino facility.

In a history-making move that would have a direct impact on the retail industry and food service sector, the state of California has moved closer to raising the statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022.

Target is not the only organization looking for a few good retail IT start-ups.

New York-based digital advertising agency R/GA is partnering with San Francisco-based Westfield Labs, the innovation lab subsidiary of shopping center operator Westfield Corp., to launch the R/GA Connected Commerce Accelerator. The application process is open to start-ups across the globe through May 23, 2016.

Reducing expenses and increasing prices are two ways for a company to make money, and Instacart is reportedly doing both.

According to the San Francisco Business Times, Instacart is reducing how much drivers get paid for each delivery, as well as the commission paid on each item. In the San Francisco market, the pay per delivery will be reduced 63% to $1.50 from $4.00, while commission per item will be cut 50% to 25 cents from 50 cents.

Omnichannel retailing — or as it is increasingly known, “retailing” — is complex and can increase costs for retailers. Here are a few ways retailers can improve store-level fulfillment to increase both profits and customer service.

Costco Wholesale Corp. is raising entry-level wages for its hourly workers for the first time since 2007.

The move comes as other major retailers have been upping the minimum wages for their entry-level workers amid a tightening job market.

Starting this month, Costco will pay workers $1.50 more per hour in the U.S. and Canada. Workers will now earn at least $13 or $13.50 per hour, up from a minimum of $11.50 or $12 per hour.

Nebraska Furniture Mart needs everything under control to compete with larger chains, and is ensuring some of its most basic functions are running as smoothly as possible.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based retailer, which is a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary with four branded stores and one clearance store, has selected the WorkForce Software EmpCenter solution to manage labor at its retail, warehouse, and corporate home office locations.