News

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Dillard's has named Chris Johnson as the company's VP real estate. Johnson, who has served as the Dillard's VP accounting since 2006, will assume the role following the retirement of James Cherry, Jr. in December.

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreen Co. reported Thursday that same-store sales for the month of August slid 8.2%. The report came on the heels of Wednesday’s announcement that Tricare would not reinstate the drug retailer into the pharmacies approved to fill prescriptions.

NEW YORK — Macy’s has raised $4 million for March of Dimes and various charitable organizations across the country as a result of its 2012 “Shop For A Cause” event.

San Francisco -- The Gymboree Corp. reported Wednesday a loss of $14.1 million in the second quarter, compared with a loss of $6.9 million for the same period last year.
 
Sales rose 3.8% to $268.8 million, from $259.0 million last year, and same-store sales dipped 1%.

During fiscal 2012, the company reiterated its plans to open 115 new stores, including 90 locations for its value-priced Crazy 8 concept.
 

WASHINGTON — The Grocery Manufacturers Association has named Elise Fennig as VP industry affairs.

Atlanta -- M-commerce provider CorFire said Thursday that it is providing virtual mobile payment capabilities to Dunkin' Donuts.

The technology supports Dunkin' Donuts' recently launched mobile app, which eliminates the need for physical cards and enables consumers to gift via SMS, email and social networks.
 
The Dunkin' App is technology agnostic and the solution, which works on most smartphones, delivers Dunkin' Donuts franchisees with payment and gifting solutions that drive customer loyalty while providing cost savings.

Walmart this week modified a layaway program that had yet to begin after Toys "R" Us said it wouldn’t charge a service fee and lifted minimum purchase requirements for its program.

The layaway saga began in late August when Walmart said the start date of its layaway program would begin on September 16, a month earlier than the prior year. Curiously, Walmart also said at that time the fee to open a layaway account would increase to $15 from $5 the prior year.

NEW YORK — Safeway will package $150 million in real healthcare savings into an overall wellness strategy to be implemented over the course of 2013, the grocer's chairman and CEO Steve Burd told analysts Thursday morning at the Goldman Sachs 19th Annual Global Retailing Conference.