News

NEW YORK — Barnes & Noble has announced that it will celebrate Black History Month with special events and promotions recognizing the significant contributions by African-Americans to the world’s social, political and economic development. Throughout February, Barnes & Noble stores will host Storytime events, promotions and celebrity appearances in stores and online at Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com).

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Food Marketing Institute on Monday honored three supermarket executives for their achievements in the industry during FMI’s Midwinter Executive Conference here, the association announced.

It was a record year for online sales this past holiday season, but Target saw others experience stronger growth, according to the most recent site visitation statistics from online measurement firm comScore.

As previously reported, the size of the prize this holiday season was $37.2 billion. That’s the volume of online sales comScore recorded during November and December, which was a 15% increase from the prior year.

The appointment of 16-year Target veteran John Mulligan as the company’s new CFO makes a lot of sense as Target will benefit from continuity of leadership in its finance department.

Target stores in Canada will have pharmacies, but the company will employ a franchise operating model as opposed to direct ownership as is the case in the United States.

The company said it plans to operate pharmacies in as many of its stores in Canada as possible and will begin its search for pharmacist franchise owners in March.

New York City -- The Talbots is in buyout talks with the private-equity firm Sycamore Partners, according to the Boston Herald. The retailer signed a confidentiality agreement on Friday with the New York-based Sycamore, its second largest shareholder with 10% of the company, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the report said.

New York City -- Using Experian Marketing Services’ comprehensive cross-channel capabilities to help improve customer experience and drive engagement, JoS. A. Bank Clothiers and Experian received a Database Excellence Award from the National Center for Data Management (NCDM).

Walmart will report fourth-quarter and full-year results in a few weeks, and the numbers, while they are sure to be extraordinarily large, will pale in comparison to the superlative-defying figures that Apple posted earlier this week.

Sam’s has enjoyed accelerating same-store sales growth the past two years, and to keep that momentum going chief merchandising officer Linda Hefner is looking for a few good suppliers to commit to a new joint business planning process.

JCPenney got a lot of love this week from investors and the media after the company’s senior leadership unveiled a simplified pricing and promotional strategy that sounded an awful lot like another well-known retailer’s success formula.