OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

New York City -- A Tuesday report by Women’s Wear Daily said that the outlet division of Saks has named a former Barneys executive as its new VP.

Saks Off 5th has named Peter Rizzo, former Barneys executive VP, as its new senior VP and creative director for merchandising.

Wayne, N.J. -- Toys “R” Us will again give its loyalty rewards members 10% back on holiday purchases.

The offer, whereby members of the chain’s rewards club get 10% back in “R Us” dollars for each dollar spent on qualifying purchases, is available from Oct. 30 through Christmas Eve. The promotional dollars will be sent to customers via email in January and can be used on future in-store purchases.

Beijing -- The Xinhua News Agency in Beijing, China, said that Wal-Mart Stores has reopened 13 stores in Chongqing after being forced by authorities to close the stores for 15 days over the mislabeling of regular pork as organic.

Chongqing authorities had also arrested two employees and fined the company $421,000 on charges of passing off regular pork as higher-priced organic meat earlier in October.

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot announced the launch of Office Depot Merchant Services, an electronic payment processing service for small and medium-sized businesses.

Mooresville, N.C. -- Lowe's has launched an integrated online experience, MyLowe’s, designed to help customers manage their homes. It will allow all purchases, in-store and online, to be tracked automatically and stored on their customer profile online.

Medford, Ore. -- Harry & David Holdings has named Craig Johnson as its CEO.

Johnson most recently served as chief supply chain officer of Guitar Center. Prior to that, he was CEO of Musician's Friend, a Guitar Center subsidiary. He has also held positions at Oriental Trading Co., Golfsmith International Holdings, and Coldwater Creek.

The company exited Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection last month.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Walmart on Monday said it will offer shoppers gift cards if they buy items and then see lower prices at other stores during the holiday season.

The chain’s "Christmas Price Guarantee" will apply to good purchased Walmart stores in the United States from Nov. 1 to Dec. 25. Under the program, shoppers who buy a product at Walmart and then find the identical item listed for a lower price at another store can receive a gift card for the difference.

Los Angeles -- Fifty-two percent of consumers plan to spend $500 or more on gifts this season, according to a new survey by PriceGrabber, a part of Experian. Thirty-six percent said they will spend less than $500, and 12% indicated that they do not have a budget.

Other key findings of the survey, conducted from Sept. 7-15, 2011, include:

Consumers overwhelmingly chose clothing as the most popular holiday gift purchase (chosen by 66%), followed by gift cards (52%), books, CDs, DVDs or videogames (46%) and toys (43%).