News

Whole Foods has earned the top spot in Greenpeace’s annual seafood sustainability ranking of U.S. supermarkets, claiming both the highest overall score and the strongest sustainable seafood policy. Whole Foods Market has been ranked first for the last two years in a row for the fourth time since 2008.

Deerfield, Ill. – The Walgreens Co. is reportedly considering making a purchase offer for U.K.-based drugstore chain Alliance Boots. Walgreens, which owns 45% of the company, has an option to purchase the remaining 55% between February and August 2015, but according to The Telegraph may try to make an offer even sooner.

Hamilton, Bermuda - Signet Jewelers Ltd. has closed the offering of $400 million senior unsecured notes due 2024 by Signet U.K. Finance PLC (a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Signet). The notes will bear interest at a rate of 4.7% per year and mature on June 15, 2024.

San Jose, Calif. – Brick-and-mortar retail sales fell 8.8% from January to April 2014 compared to the same period a year earlier. RetailNext analysis of almost 59 million specialty and larger format retail stores within the continental U.S. also shows that store traffic fell 8.2%.

Other findings include that brick-and-mortar transactions fell 9.2%, and, sales per store slipped 0.8%. However, two positive developments were an average transaction value increase of 0.5% and a 0.81% decrease in returns.

Shelfbucks, a leading iBeacon promotion platform for retail stores, has appointed retail industry veteran Bill Martin, founder of ShopperTrak, as chairman of its board of directors.

Martin will oversee Shelfbucks' growth in the retail sector, guiding the company's strategic planning, operations and marketing efforts.

Topco Associates has appointed Linda Severin as VP, marketing. Severin will report directly to Topco president and CEO Randy Skoda.

“Linda brings a wealth of knowledge in branding and marketing to Topco that will benefit all our members,” Skoda said. “She has built and developed successful private label brands for industry leaders, and we are confident she will drive competitive advantage for our products and strong results for our members in their retail stores.”

When industry experts talk about retailers connecting with today’s mobile consumer, they are generally referring to customers who always travel with smartphones and tablets. But there is another type of “mobile” consumer touchpoint retailers should be targeting, and that is the automobile.

Target has appointed Peter Glusker as SVP, new business integration and operations. Glusker will lead the integration of new acquisitions and comes onboard just two weeks after the company terminated chairman and CEO Gregg Steinhafel.