News

Raj Jain, the former head of a joint venture between Walmart and Bharti Enterprises, has joined Bharti Retail as CEO.

Jain spent six years with the joint venture, Bharti Walmart, most recently serving as president of Walmart India. He left the joint venture in June 2013, four months before Walmart and Bharti announced they would independently pursue retail opportunities in India.

Joining Jain at Bharti Retail is his former joint venture colleague Panka Madan who will serve as CFO. Madan also served as CFO of Bharti Walmart but left the joint venture in 2012.

San Francisco -- Custom apparel and accessory provider vPersonalize.com has launched a new full-custom, online store for customers to design and buy their own personalized apparel and accessories.

vPersonalize.com features a Web-based configurator that allows consumers to design directly on a 3-D model of a T-shirt, backpack or bag and get it custom-made almost exactly as seen.

Emeryville, Calif. — Jamba Juice Company has entered into a master franchise development agreement with Foodmark, the food and beverage division of Landmark Group, to develop 80 Jamba Juice stores across the Middle East region during the next 10 years. The first Jamba Juice store is expected to open in Dubai in 2014.

Foodmark operates several restaurant concepts and brands in the region.

New York — Due to the holiday rush and related closings, sister publication Chain Store Age has extended the deadline for its 32nd annual Retail Store of the Year Design Competition until Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014.

In-store holiday sales during December 2013 are expected to come out ahead of in-store holiday sales during the same month in the previous year. Retail analytics provider Euclid analyzed nearly 25 million domestic shopping sessions during December, revealing that shopper traffic and window conversion improved as heavy promotions kept holiday shoppers coming.

City of Commerce, Calif. — 99 Cents Only Stores opens its first store in Waco, Texas on Thursday, Jan. 9. The new store is approximately 13,000 square feet and will feature a perishable food department, including produce, dairy and frozen foods.

99 Cents Only Stores currently operates 339 extreme value retail stores consisting of 244 stores in California, 45 in Texas, 33 in Arizona, and 17 in Nevada.

Fewer sales of flu shots and prescription drugs at Rite Aid led to same-store script count decreases. However, the company reported increases in net and same-store sales for December.

A new form of digital currency will reportedly soon be competing with Bitcoin. According to multiple media reports, the currency, known as “Coinye West,” will launch at 11 p.m. ET on Saturday, Jan. 11.

According to the Coinye West website, the currency will use a Scrypt algorithm and have a maximum number of 1,333,333,333. The site also promises that password-protected, encrypted archives containing the binaries and source for the wallet and daemon will be released before launch and that Coinye West is digital currency “for the masses.”