News

Walmat’s efforts to penetrate to New York have been the focus of considerable media attention the past few years so it is somewhat strange to find no mention of the company in a report out this week on commercial real estate trends.

Laura Pomerantz, a principal with the New York-based commercial real estate firm of PBS Real Estate noted that “2011 will see big changes on the streets of Manhattan. New and unexpected retailers are transforming shopping dynamics from Madison and Fifth Avenue to Times Square and the Upper West Side.”

DUBAI -- Tiffany and Co. announced it has named Frederic Cumenal as EVP effective March 10. Cumenal will be responsible for the company's businesses in Asia, Japan, Europe and emerging markets, and will report to chairman and CEO Michael Kowalski.

Cumenal joins Tiffany from the LVMH Group where most recently he was president and CEO of Moet and Chandon, S.A.

Walmart executives will take to the road next week to speak at two investor conferences where it would seem unlikely that little if any new information will be shared since the conferences are just two weeks removed from the release of Walmart’s fourth-quarter results.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Overstock.com announced that it won two 2011 Stevie Awards for sales and customer service, in the following categories -- Customer Service Department of the Year, Retail and Sales Department of the Year, All Other Industries.

Now in its fifth year, the Stevie Awards selected winners in 40 award categories honoring achievements, individuals, teams and departments by industry in the sales field and 25 award categories honoring individuals, team and departments by industry in the customer service/contact center awards field.

The National Governors Association named Walmart the recipient of its annual Public-Private Partnership Award at the closing of its 2011 Winter Meeting. The award is now in its fifth year and honors companies that have partnered with a governor's office to implement a program or project that positively affects the state's citizens. Walmart was nominated by Arkansas Gov.

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Bi-Lo has developed and launched its own nutritional tagging system that identifies healthful attributes in particular foods.

The retailer said the system features a wide range of categories established by Bi-Lo’s registered dietitian, Monica Amburn. Amburn said the system allows customers to create positive attitudes about healthy eating.

The tags highlight such benefits as "low sodium" or "an excellent source of vitamin C," as well as gluten-free and organic products.

Costco and BJ’s were out with quarterly results this week following the release of Sam’s Club results last week that included flat operating profits and a 2.7% same-store sales increase excluding gas. Those results, characterized by Sam’s Club president and CEO Brian Cornell as strong and very pleasing, are consistent with results out this week from club competitors. Both Costco and BJ’s reported quarterly results that were in-line with or beat analysts’ expectations.

Topeka, Kan. -- Collective Brands, the parent company of Payless ShoeSource, said Wednesday that its net loss narrowed slightly in the fourth quarter as sales improved in its wholesale unit. The performance beat Wall Street expectations.

For the three months ended Jan. 29, Collective Brands lost $10.1 million, compared with a loss of $10.9 million in the year-ago period.

SAN DIEGO -- ShowUhow Inc., developer and provider of on-demand, video-based Product Guides, has appointed Anthony Wyatt to EVP sales and marketing.

Wyatt will be responsible for leading the sales and marketing initiatives at ShowUhow and is challenged to drive the company to its next strategic milestones. He will be leading a national sales strategy for the ShowUhow team to target leading product manufacturers and top retailers.

Former IBM engineers Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver are among this year’s inductees into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

The duo is credited with developing the first optically-scanned bar code after overhearing a conversation in which a food executive expressed a desire to capture more product information at checkout.