News

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens said its same-store sales in January fell 4.6% in the wake of its decision to stop doing business with a major  pharmacy benefits manager. A weak flu season also figured into its results.

Walgreen stopped filling prescriptions for patients in the Express Scripts network on December 31, 2011. Pharmacy same-store sales were down 7.9% in January.
 

NEW YORK — Online fashion retailer Bluefly announced that it has promoted Joseph Park, previously COO, to CEO, effective immediately, replacing Melissa Payner, who resigned as CEO and a member of the company’s board of directors. Park is also replacing Payner on the board of directors. Park joined Bluefly as COO in June 2011 after founding and leading several successful Internet businesses during the past fourteen years.

Walmart is poised to top EPA’s Green Power Partnership rankings within a few years as renewable energy sources account for an increasing percentage of the company’s usage.

Increasing smartphone and tablet penetration rates ensure mobile devices will figure more prominently into brands’ customer engagement strategies going forward. That’s old news. For some fresh thinking on the subject, click here to see what Jeff Weidauer, VP marketing and strategy at Little Rock, Ark.-based Vestcom International has to say on the subject. 

NEW YORK — Kohl’s Department Stores and Walmart rank among the nation’s top purchasers of power according to the EPA’s most recent Green Power Partnership report. Kohl’s placed second in the ranking, while Walmart came in at third, followed by Whole Foods Market. Intel Corp. maintained its long-held top spot. Other retailers in the top 10 included Starbucks (No. 7) and Staples (No.9).

New York City -- Saks Fifth Avenue said Friday that, during February, it will give 5% of all registered purchases made with a Saks Fifth Avenue credit card back to local charities.

Saks Fifth Avenue has partnered with 194 charitable organizations nationwide.

“We appreciate our customers’ charitable involvement and look forward to giving back locally with this exciting and newly implemented national program,” said Steve Sadove, chairman and CEO, Saks Inc.

January may be the least important month of the year, as retail experts like to point out, but a sale is a sale and judging from monthly results from the dwindling number of companies who still report them, it was a pretty good month.

That bodes well for Walmart and supports the thesis that the company capped off its fiscal year with solid results to complement the expectation that November and December sales were also solid thanks to merchandising changes, the return of layaway, early opening hours on Black Friday and a heavy holiday marketing spend.

Social media has transformed the way brands connect with consumers, which is why anyone interested in the future of retail owes it to themselves to spend at least a few minutes combing through the registration statement Facebook filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week in connection with a planned public stock offering.