OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

Goodlettsville, Tenn. -- Dollar General Corp. announced Monday that Kathleen Guion, division president of store operations and store development, will retire from the company effective July 31, 2012.

According to Dollar General, during her tenure Guion oversaw more than 9,500 stores in 35 states and revamped the company’s real estate strategy. Before assuming her current role in November 2005, Guion served as executive VP store operations. Prior to joining Dollar General in 2003, she served as president and CEO of Duke and Long Distributing Co.

San Francisco -- Wal-Mart Stores said Friday it agreed that women planning potential gender-bias suits, after a group lawsuit was rejected by the Supreme Court, should get an extra 90 days to file their cases. Opposing lawyers are seeking to extend the filing deadline by 120 days.

Austin, Texas -- Whole Foods Market announced Monday it is launching a charitable organization with a goal to provide children access to healthy foods.

Whole Kids Foundation, said the grocer, will work with schools, educators and other organizations to help improve children's food choices.

The foundation's first initiative is a program to help put in place or expand teaching gardens to help build children's relationships with food through the power of gardening.

New York City -- Mike Boylson, formerly executive VP and CMO of J.C. Penney, has traded retailing for baseball. The 32-year J.C. Penney veteran, who officially stepped down from the company on July 1, and a friend are opening a franchise of D-Bat, a baseball and softball training academy, Advertising Age reported. The facility is due to open this fall.

McKinney, Texas -- Blockbuster announced that it has assumed contracts with property owners nationwide and will maintain operations of more than 1,500 U.S. Blockbuster stores that would have closed under liquidation, as approved in a New York bankruptcy court this week. The chain also will retain more than 15,000 store employees.

Dallas -- A Wednesday report in the Dallas Business Journal said that Neiman Marcus has hired a new chief human resources officer.

Sandra Brooslin-Viviano joined the company on July 18 as senior VP human resources, succeeding the newly retired Maritea O’Dea.

Brooslin-Viviano, 55, was previously executive VP human resources for New York and Co.

New York City -- A Bloomberg report on Thursday said that consumer confidence stagnated last week, as the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index was minus 43.3 in the period to July 17, the highest since April, compared with minus 43.9 the prior week.

The monthly gauge of the economic outlook improved from a two-year low, according to the report.

Matthews, N.C. -- Family Dollar Stores said Thursday that it has named Christopher Nielsen to the position of VP -- loss prevention.

Nielsen will report to Bryan Venberg, senior VP – human resources.

He began his career at Family Dollar in 1998 as regional loss-prevention director, and was promoted to regional VP in 2001.