News

It was the biggest story in the retail world last week when JCPenney announced it had hired Ron Johnson as its new CEO with the incoming executive vowing to transform the way America shops by reinventing the department store. Such statements normally elicit a yawn because they are so common, but Johnson is the former SVP retail at Apple and spent the past 11 years overseeing the development and growth of the company’s wildly successful and widely heralded retail operation.

Target’s first stores in Canada are not scheduled to open until 2013, but this week the company can get a glimpse of what it’s up against when Walmart Canada president and CEO David Cheesewright is scheduled to speak at the Jefferies 2011 Global Consumer Conference.

Food inflation is top of mind with retailers these days and more specifically the ability to preserve margins by raising prices to offset the higher prices suppliers are charging. This ability to pass through price increases is dominating discussions in a food universe where it has become common to hear retailers use the word “rational” when describing the pricing climate.

Cincinnati -- Macy’s has entered into a $1.5 billion bank credit agreement that will mature on June 20, 2015. It replaces a previous $2 billion facility, which was set to mature on August 30, 2012. Joint lead arrangers for the new agreement are J. P. Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo.