News

Food Network personality Paula Deen may not have a reputation for healthy cooking, but that’s not stopping her from traveling to Walmart’s hometown this weekend to participate in American Heart Association activities and receive a key to the city.

Deen and her husband Michael Groover will accept the key to Bentonville from Mayor Bob McCaslin on Friday afternoon and later in the evening Deen will guest at a kick-off event and reception supporting the American Heart Association’s Southwest Chapter.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Same-store sales at Rite Aid decreased 2% in March, including a 3.8% increase in same-store sales on the front end and a 4.5% decrease in pharmacy sales.

The 4,621-store chain reported total sales for the month of $1.939 billion, a 2.5% decrease compared with $1.989 billion in March 2012, while same-store prescription count increased 0.3%.

The company said that of the 3.8% increase in front-end same-store sales, 3% came from a shift in timing of Easter, which fell on March 31, as opposed to April 8 last year.

MERRIMACK, N.H. — Brookstone announced that it has accepted the resignation of Stephen Bebis, its president and CEO and a member of the company's board of directors. Bebis' resignation will be effective April 4. Bebis joined Brookstone in May 2012.  

Effective upon Bebis' resignation, James M. Speltz, the company's VP, COO has been appointed as the company's new president and CEO.

AUSTIN, Texas — SecureNet Payment Systems, an innovative payment technology company directly connected to the major card networks, announced the company has exceeded $19 billion in annual transaction volume and increased its number of merchant partners to over 16,000. Additionally, SecureNet announced four new merchant service provider partnerships that will greatly expand the company's rapidly growing network of partners.

LOS ANGELES — Sport Chalet has launched a new service that it will give customers the opportunity to order merchandise online and have it delivered the same day.

Empty shelves at Walmart are getting a lot of attention these days, but the situation isn’t new and can’t be blamed entirely on store staffing levels.

ROANOKE, Va. — Advance Auto has named George Sherman president of the company as part of its effort to simplify company leadership.

In his role as president, Sherman will be responsible for growing commercial and driving excellence throughout the company’s operations. Sherman will lead the company’s commercial sales, field operations, store operations support, merchandising, marketing, supply chain and e-commerce teams.

Oklahoma City -- CVS Caremark Corp. will pay $11 million to settle federal claims that the company’s pharmacies in the state violated record-keeping requirements of the Controlled Substances Act.

Federal prosecutor Sanford Coats said Wednesday that CVS has agreed to the settlement to resolve all allegations. However, while CVS said that its stores must comply with the record-keeping requirements, it does not admit liability.

Burlington, Mass. -- Demandware said Wednesday that Avenue Stores has selected the Demandware Commerce platform to support its omni-channel vision.  

Avenue Stores signed with Demandware in first quarter 2013.

Avenue needed a scalable and comprehensive digital commerce platform to realize its omni-channel vision, and will also utilize Demandware’s web design capabilities to optimize its sites for mobile and tablet commerce, as well as explore opportunities to integrate digital into its brick-and-mortar stores.  

Hampstead, Md. -- Jos. A. Bank Clothiers reported Wednesday that net income for the fiscal year ended Feb. 2 slid to $79.7 million, from $97.5 million in the prior year.

Annual sales rose 7.1% to a record $1.05 billion, from $979.9 million. Same-store sales decreased 0.5%.

Jos. A. Bank had warned that net income for fiscal year 2012 was expected to be approximately 20% lower than net income for fiscal year 2011.