News

Fred’s Inc. is playing defense.   The Memphis-based retailer on Tuesday adopted a shareholder rights plan, or “poison pill,” less than a week after news surfaced that an activist investor had amassed a big stake in the company. It also comes approximately one week after Fred’s announced it had agreed to purchase 865 divested Rite Aid stores as part of the expected Walgreens Boots Alliance-Rite Aid merger. The acquisition would more than double Fred’s store count.   

The majority of retailers managed to keep their shipping promises this holiday.   That’s according to Kurt Salmon’s annual Holiday Shipping study, which found that 97% of retailers successfully processed and delivered orders to customers on their last guaranteed shipping date before Christmas. according to Kurt Salmon’s (part of Accenture Strategy) annual Holiday Shipping study. This compares to 87% in 2014 and 95% in 2015. 

As Genesco expands its business, it needs an inventory management platform that can scale just as quickly — now it has one.   The retailer and wholesaler of branded footwear, headwear and apparel initially deployed an automated retail inventory management platform, called Vision Merchandising, from Jesta in 1998. At the time, the company operated less than 500 stores, and used the system to support the firm’s exponential growth and empower users to work more efficiently.   

Instagram’s rapid growth should be music to retailer’s ears.   The Facebook-owned photo and video sharing app has hit 600 million monthly active users, a 100 million user jump in the last six months, according to Recode.   

From start to finish, many of this year’s biggest retail stories involved mergers and acquisitions as the industry continues to remake itself in a digital age. Here’s a look back at 10 stories that caused big buzz — and were the most viewed  by readers on Chainstoreage.com.

Looking to make digital transactions safer, two credit card network powerhouses are joining forces to tokenize shoppers’ payment card credentials.   

With the retail environment undergoing the most complex changes in our generation, the sustainability of the current retail economic model is in question.    Historically, retail CFO’s, as the principal financial oficers, were primarily responsible for more traditional finance, treasury, regulatory, information delivery and related functions.   

One current and one former employee of Whole Foods Market have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the grocer.