OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

New York -- Two U.S. retailers took home top honors at the 2012 World Retail Awards in London, with Costco Wholesale Club named “Retailer of the Year,” and Macy’s recognized as “Multichannel Retailer of the Year.” The awards were announced as part of the 2012 World Retail Congress.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Friday it will add about 50,000 seasonal associates to staff its stores this year, as well as offer additional hours to existing personnel.

“This is our busiest time of the year and we are focused even more on providing excellent service to our shoppers throughout the holiday season,” said Gisel Ruiz, executive VP and COO, Walmart U.S. “One way we do that is by ensuring our stores are adequately staffed by our associates.”

Atlanta -- The Home Depot said Friday it has named Mark Vadon, co-founder of online jeweler Blue Nile, to its board of directors.

Vadon will serve on the audit and finance committees. His appointment gives the company 11 directors, 10 of whom are independent.

Pittsburgh -- Dick’s Sporting Goods said Thursday it has launched a new mobile application for iPhone and Android smartphones.

The new app gives users access to Dick’s ScoreCard rewards program, along with location services, social networking and mobile shopping capabilities. It also features built-in barcode scanner functionality, allowing shoppers to scan product and marketing QR codes in-store and access information including product description, news, price and user reviews.

Minneapolis -- Supervalu on Thursday announced the appointment of Kathy Persian as senior VP and chief information officer of the company.  

Persian joined Supervalu in 2010 as group VP retail and merchandising systems, and later moved to group VP corporate planning, analysis and business process.

She replaces Wayne Shurts, who resigned to accept a position with another company.

Prior to Supervalu, Persian served as senior VP international business process and operations for Best Buy Co.

San Francisco -- As consumers await the debut of Apple’s iPhone 5, two retailer applications are now ranked among the Top 20 “bestsellers” free apps as ranked by Apple.

Target ranks No. 8 overall and Walgreens No. 10 as of Thursday.

Target version 5.5.1 now allows users to receive coupons directly in the app and scan them in the store and is compatible with Apple's latest iPhone operating system iOS 6. And now search results on the Target app can be filtered by price, in-store or online availability and color.

Cary, N.C. -- C-store operator The Pantry said Thursday it has named Joe Venezia as senior VP operations for the chain.

Venezia most recently worked at TitleMax, and before that served in regional general manager positions at Wal-Mart.

Richmond, Va. -- An annual seasonal hiring survey released Thursday by Snagajob indicates that more holiday jobs will be available this year than have been expected in any previous season in the study’s five-year history.  


The survey of more than 1,000 hourly hiring managers with responsibility for seasonal hiring, conducted by IPSOS Public Affairs for Snagajob, included the following highlights: